Wrecking Ball
by BleedingHeartsoftheWorldUnite
Summary: Cassie was holding back from Kotal, Kotal was neglecting to mention things about his past; Jin was starting a relationship with a thorny Lin Kuei; Jacqui was trying not to get jealous about Takeda's ex, the ex was losing it, and Takeda was right behind her; Kuai Liang was still feeling guilty about what happened 20 years ago; and once again Hanzo was on the verge of losing all.
1. Cage's Quandry

_Tap tap tap_ , the dull pounding of plastic keys on a keyboard filled the cluttered office space of one Sgt. Cassandra Cage, the tune throbbing _tap, tap, click_ in the blonde's ear. A relatively speedy writer - albeit one who suffered more than the occasional typo from her haste - Cassie was chicken pecking more out of boredom than practice when three familiar faces crowded into limited floorspace the office allowed. Not nearly as burdened by paperwork as their C.O., the unlikely trio had so much more time on their hands to come up with pointless and annoying shenanigans. Cassie simply adored shenanigans, especially when they involved targeting other people.

Technically placed on stand-by since that whole ordeal with Shinnok, this could have been them summoning her for a new mission, but in all of the blonde's time in the military, never once had it taken the whole squad to call on their commanding officer. Besides, if anything their positions gave away the frivolous nature of this audience: hand-in-hand and still grinning like a bunch of idiots in love, Jacqueline Briggs and Takeda Takahashi stood a hairsbreadth behind the biggest asshole who ever became a shaolin monk, Kung Jin. In her mind, Jin was almost always irrelevant, or at the least up to no good.

In dire need of some entertainment, the general's daughter played coy and feigned a scowl that even her mother would have been proud of. If not thanks to her father being a famous (or infamous, depending on who you asked) actor, all that extra time she was putting in acting as ambassador in Outworld was really paying off. At least she thought so. "Shouldn't you lousy lot be harassing the new recruits, or maybe training so the next time my dad makes us spar one of you can actually put up a decent fight?"

Smirking that trademark Cage smirk, her green eyes fell lastly on Kung Jin, who did not fail to notice the slight. Aside from sucking, the archer was really spectacular at sniffing out insults to his personal being, and admittedly dishing out snippy comebacks with some snap. "I can kick your ass any day of the week!" _At least most of the time_ , Cassie thought to herself.

"Maybe any day that doesn't end in 'y'," Cassandra laughed at her own joke, unsurprised that the other two weren't taking any sides in the customary squabble. It was almost like a daily ritual between the two, and the day just wasn't quite right without a handful of witty banter.

Honestly, were it not for Jin's "controversial" interests and Cassie's relationship with the Kahn, Jacqui and Takeda might have suspected for a split second that there was some serious sexual tension between the two alphas. Maybe in another life, because in this one Cass was getting rather serious with Kotal from what everyone saw, and Jin was just completely apathetic to the boobs. Frankly Cassie and Jacqui both doubted that he ever even wanted to bother with their gender in the first place, but whatever, love was love, no matter what was between your legs.

 _Love was love._ Grand as that sentiment was, words alone didn't make it any easier to face life and the lovely little issues that came with being in a relationship, long distance or otherwise. Finding a person that could stomach you and all your BS for regular intervals was impressive enough, but to successfully navigate through the choppy waters of political power plays and inter-dimensional guidelines that were being written as time went on... Urgh, it was a fucking nightmare, but for Cassie Ko'atal was worth putting up with all that crap. _For now, at least_.

It wasn't that the human was exactly eager to begin shopping around for a new paramour, but lately there just seemed to be more and more things that were coming up to test the couple, and given their positions it was difficult to work it all out. Like the whole centuries-wide age gap was a constant point of disapproval from her parents (which really did get exhausting), and just all of the cultural differences and restrictions they encountered were almost starting to feel like a third wheel...

"So Cass," Jin's voice cut through the fog of Cassie's thoughts like a meat cleaver through bone, "how are things with the Kahn going?". Not to be outdone in any arena, the archer's frown quickly shifted into his tattle-tale shit-eating grin as retribution came to him; Takeda didn't need his telepathy to know that this was going to get dirty in a hurry, nor did Jacqui need her boyfriend's worried look and gentle elbow-to-the-rib warning. Even Cassie could see it coming, but she wasn't too worried. As a woman that spoke her mind whenever a thought struck her, she was no stranger to backlash, although admittedly there was one personal concern pressing her mind, and not even Jacqui knew about it...

Jacqui, who knew literally everything there was to know about Cassie; Jacqui, who would help her face any problem head-on. Jacqui, who had her own life, her own relationship, her own issues to deal with. Still though, if Jacqui had been the one to ask that, the blonde popping her gum on the opposite side of the desk would have at least known that there was a genuine interest and disquiet in the question. Truthfully there were times she wished that Takeda would just read her mind and go to her best friend for advise or whatever, but damn him he was just too much of a gentleman to pry that far without express permission.

Testing the limits of just how far he could push the slightly younger woman before she snapped, Jin barreled on, oblivious to the thoughts swirling inside her head. If her best friend had no clue what was going on internally, there was absolutely no way that the guys would have a prayer of guessing. _How can I tell any of them when I can't even say it to Ko'atal?_ "You still our sarge, or are we going to have to start calling you Empress Cassandra Cage, the bratty blonde queen of blowjobs soon?"

Stung by the accuracy of the comment, she took a considerable pause while pretending to finish typing out a heinously dull report that was due on the General's desk an hour ago, using the time to really just update her Friendships status: _Anyone else ever have one of those days you just want to blow out the brains of your co-workers?_ Well, maybe not her _whole_ squad, as Takeda was just kind of there with her at the moment, but most definitely Jin. But since when was that anything new? "If you're asking if he put a ring on it yet, do you see any new bling?" Cassie flipped the Shaolin monk the bird.

Despite the AC thrumming gently behind Cassie's head keeping the rest of the compound comfortable, someone just brought gasoline to this powder keg. It was true that living through her parent's divorce had jaded her to the thought of marriage, yet that didn't mean that the blonde was completely opposed to the idea of a committed monogamist relationship with the right person. Not that Ko'atal was necessarily that person, but it would have been nice if he was open to the discussion. Then again, it might have helped if she actually broached the topic... Either way, it was so not cool of Jin to bring it up.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

First and foremost, I'd like to request that you take the time to review. I'd prefer it if your comments were constructive criticism, but honestly I'd be more than grateful for even a simple 'I like it, when's the next chapter?'. On the subject of reviews, if you do, I will try to get back to you ASAP if there's anything worth saying in reply, and I will thank you in the next chapter, so if you don't want that acknowledgment, please just let me know and I will refrain.

In terms of chapter updates, my style is to typically hit them out bam-bam-bam while I'm caught up in it all, but I inevitably slow down, at which point there is no guarantee when (or even if) I'll continue. Considering how much I love MK, I will probably at least end this. Technically I have not ended my last MK fic as it still requires a sequel, but as this is a reboot of my initial story (largely growth, time, and MK X made this happen), I feel semi-justified.

 ***this section may contain Mortal Kombat X spoilers from story mode***

Speaking of MK X (not that I want to get into this tangent, but I really have to vent somewhere), I have to admit that I personally haven't played it yet as I'm still on the older gen systems for one, and for two I'm holding out for the hopeful Komplete Edition. Originally (when I had this whole separate take on everything written back just after MKX came out), I had a few things to nitpick over, but now that time and understanding have settled (relatively speaking), I do have one issue I can't put to bed. That's the "deaths" of Mileena and Quan Chi. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm biased, but really? Really? They're going to do Quan Chi like that? He's way too cunning and not nearly so loyal as to just die like that! And I know I can't be the only one that's incapable of seeing a future MK title without Mileena in it! Well maybe yes I am on the last one, but still.

Arcade ending aside, maybe it's reaching, but I have theories on how they could make it into the next game (assuming that there is one. Lol, of course there will be). Mileena was offed by D'Vorah, who we see is loyal to Shinnok (am I the only one that was truly shocked by that?). Shinnok and Quan Chi are known for raising the dead. So maybe it'll be as revenant, but it's technically not impossible. As for Quan Chi, I think that he is still alive. Maybe he had a clone fake everyone out the entire time, or maybe it was just closer to the end, but think about it - both he and Shinnok were decapitated. And it's not exactly like you see what went down when ol' Fishface himself lost his head... I'm just saying, Quan Chi's too slippery to just die like that. Get his butt kicked, fine, but not die.

Actually I do have less pressing issues with the whole come-on-i-ness of Sub-Zero's and Mileena's interactions, but that's really neither here nor there as I don't mind the implied relationship, I'd just like to know when/how business brought the Empress and the mind-slave together. Because to me it would have made the most sense for them to interact while he was under Quan Chi's control. Anyways!

 ***spoiler/rant end***

As a warning, I can be forgetful, which will largely show itself more in my notes than in the actual story. That's probably irrelevant information, but sometimes I forget to note something or if there's a time gap between updates, I might just lose why I chose to take the story in a certain direction if I don't promptly apply the info.

Now to explain the chapter itself! Well this once the title, but then the story! My first thought - after _Oh, shit! I have no idea what to name this story_ \- was to go with **Wrecking Ball**. Yes, after the Miley Cyrus song. It was a really close call actually, but thankfully there was a part of me that didn't feel it was the right fit, so I opted to find a more relevant title. I think I found it too! Seriously, if you haven't heard Skylar Grey's **_I Know You_** , you really should give it a listen! Ok yes, it was on a certain album, but screw it, I'm not promoting that movie, just recommending a really great song! And then as I was about to post the chapter, I thought about it some more, and I realized that I should just go with my gut.

Ok, and now the chapter itself! Man, can I put any more exclamation marks in the notes section? Sorry, my tired mind wanders. Hemhem, so without further ado, the notes for this chapter! Kung Jin - I feel as if I know very little about him, so that kinda jaded my opinion of him initially. Thanks in large to reading other people's takes on him, my view has softened, but I still wish that we could get to see/know more about him. Oh well. And just so we're all clear, my dislike of Jin came before it was pointed out to me that he was gay (actually that whole bit about sexual tension was my first reaction to him and Cassie's relationship). Speaking of Cassie and Jin, I realize that they probably started to butt-heads a bit less after the game (although I doubt that it will ever stop completely between them), but I decided to go in a rougher direction for their feelings towards the other. And I think it's about time that there was an open character in MK, and I find it even cooler that he's a monk.

There was probably more I wanted to address about this story... Damn. Well I guess that you should be forewarned that there will be more than one OC x Cannon relationship in this story. So yeah.

Yeesh, that was a lot to get off my chest, but hopefully it'll be the last time that the notes sections is longer than the actual chapter!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Mortal Kombat nor any of their characters. They are the intellectual property of NetherRealm Studios, Ed Boon, and John Tobias. Any OCs and lesser non-MK characters are mine. Any possible depictions of explicit violence/gore, nudity/sexual situations, racism/discrimination, and/or whatever else that's crazy/bad are not to be taken as a reflection of my own person and are simply tools/devices/forms of plot/entertainment and should not be taken seriously. I say live and let live - I'm not here to tell anyone how to be or who to love or anything of the sort. This is all purely for entertainment and the love I have for writing, as well as these characters.


	2. Moonlight Minds

Heedless of the budding shit-storm that was brewing inside of the office, there was a timid knock on the door that brought them all crashing back to the reality of the present, or in other words, Cassie was forced by years of training to set aside her petty bullshit to act her rank. If it wasn't the General making rounds to keep her men on their toes - or worse coming to collect a dissertation that was currently incomplete - it could have been visiting dignitaries. _It could be Ko'atal_ , Cassie thought in spite of herself. Regardless, it could have been an important guest, and that warranted them all to be on their best behavior. _At least there was one upside to assembling this rag-tag team of wannabe Avengers with various backgrounds,_ and that was all of the strict-ass discipline the team had endured before they could even dream of kicking their first ass.

Well aware that it was that much more of a challenge for Takeda to use his telepathy when he couldn't clearly see his target due to environmental obstacles, Cassie still gave him a nod, silently ordering the shinobi to reach out and probe the mind of whomever was on the outside of that plain oak portal. Statistically speaking, there was a very great chance that he would be attempting to read the "wrong" person, but Cassie would be damned if she and her men were caught with their pants around their ankles on home turf.

Understanding his task, the ninja raised his index and middle fingers to his dark umber temple and was almost immediately rebuffed by a non-human barrier, having time enough to glimpse a lone image of a bedridden woman with ghastly pale flesh and a halo of wanning silver-gold locks fanned across the low tatami bed, spilling along the wood floor. _Was that...?_ It might have just been the flash of a picture, yet Takeda was positive that he knew that room, and more importantly he was throughly convinced that he knew the identity of the woman, although that should have been impossible...

Not fully human but not fully something else either, whoever was dwelling on that troubling visual was possibly just using it as a means to shield themselves from his powers, although for what ends he could not guess, not yet. Shaking his head in the short interval it took for the stranger to enter the office, the Shirai Ryu was forced to admit to the others that he had missed his window to discern their guest's identity, although he was more than prepared to try again once he could get a proper look at the guy. Something about this mind seemed to ring a bell, recalling one person in his past in particular, however there was also something different about it as well, something colder, deader.

"Hello?"

Soft as the wings of a dove in a muted wood, the telepath knew that voice even before he saw the person to whom it belonged. Given everything he ought to have known right away that it was her, yet time had done more than he previously thought to erase memories he thought would stay vivid and fresh; the feel of her mind when she had allowed him in for the first time, the scent of her coffee-stained hair as she whispered into his ear... _No_ , he thought to himself as he cast a weary eye on his girlfriend, _now isn't the time for looking back_.

"Pardon me, but I'm afraid that I'm lost..." trailing off as her explanation of shoddy geographic skills was lost to the winds, the kunoichi suddenly espied her peer in the secret and lethal arts and whatever landmark she had been seeking was swallowed by the black mask that covered half her face, all of her arms, and a small part of her chest. Roughly in their age group, the strange female was clad in yellow and black the same as the Shirai Ryu favored, her hair tied back in two loose half pigtails just below the crown line. "Takeda? Takeda Takahashi, is that you?!"

 **Several years ago, in the Himalayas...**

Lapping gently against the beaten heather rocks, the silver mirror that was the pool seemed a dim slate chip opposite the shimmering silhouette that stood in the center of the languid ripples, the argent waves cresting parallel to half-submerged shoulders. After a tough day of training with the Grandmaster, it was not unheard of for some of the more advanced pupils to visit the nearby grotto - with Hanzo's leave of course - although they were always sojourns taken alone. Until tonight.

"Oh!" Stumbling with stealth along through the thick shrubbery that obscured a large portion of the scant visible sections, Takeda had come to the antre thinking that he would be the only one aside from his mind, yet very clearly one of his brethren had already occupied the space. That was all well and fine as the boy didn't mind waiting his turn to stew, however the issue wasn't anywhere near as cut and dry as that: not simply one of the others, the moonlight bather was one of the few females in the clan, and yet that still wasn't the worst part. Hitomi was not only his usual sparring partner (because it wasn't hard at all for him to spend hours on end pressed against the form of a girl he found attractive), she was a very good friend.

True the whipper-snapper had only glimpsed her back and just enough of her face to discern who it was, but in his mind it remained that he had now technically seen her naked. As a teenager with raging hormones he had often dreamed of this moment, but now that Mr. Manners was actually peeking behind the veil of fantasy, a part of him was shamed that he continued to ogle and peep, even after giving himself away.

Jerking her head around for a better look at her surroundings, the kunoichi quickly covered her chest at the gasp and peered about nervously for signs of the Grandmaster. Apparently - and very unsurprisingly for her - Hitomi was there without obtaining the Scorpion's consent. "Grandmaster?" When there was no reply, the girl was emboldened enough to challenge whomever dared to ruin her rumination, "And which pervert is this? Yuusuke? Keilon? Whoever you are, you had best show yourself before trouble brews!"

Scratching the back his head nervously with an apologetic smile (as if that would make everything alright), Takeda revealed himself before his companion, eyes open just enough to keep himself from tripping. "Yo."

"Takeda?!" Sputtering over her tongue and babbling incoherently in her shock, it was instantly clear that the young lady was at a loss for what to say; half relieved that it was only her friend, another part of her was blushing all the way to the moon above, embarrassed that she had actually just been thinking of him. Innocent in the cradle and growing ever less so as they developed and matured, Hitomi's thoughts shifted into full-blown fairy-tales that were less about indigenous folklores and more about tail. It seemed to her that with each passing day they became stronger and hit more frequently, especially when they had to spar together in the dojo...

Always surprisingly good at talking to the opposite sex considering that he lived most of life among men and boys, the teen tried to laugh the situation off like the accident it was, "I guess this is why the Grandmaster is so strict on insisting that we should clear it with him before we head out. And here I thought he was just trying to hide something." Catching a moment too late what a poor choice of words that could have been construed as, the adolescent was quick to amend that mistake, not realizing all of the forks that were suddenly appearing in the middle of his life path. "Not you, just something. Some kind of surprise for Evren-san, possibly."

Suppressing that shudder while mentally standing stock-still on the rickety precipice of making a choice that very well could have altered the course of her future, she watched him cautiously for a moment, aware that there would likely never be a better chance than now to make fiction a reality. Oh how she longed to know what it would feel like to have his arms all over her while hands roamed, yet on that same token, if she did make her move, how would he react? So many things could have gone wrong, and if it got back to the Grandmaster... No, she probably shouldn't.

And yet Hitomi could hear herself speaking with a certain kind of daring that she'd never experienced before, her arm slowly falling away as she stood up in the water, the water cold as it beaded down her skin in winding rivulets. "Let him have his secrets."

* * *

 **A/N:**

I'm back! Lol, no I just actually had the first few chapters already typed up before posting the story. Anyways, not really much to say this go around (see?). And for future reference, the disclaimer stands for the entire story, not just chapter-by-chapter.


	3. Ninja'd

Acutely aware of four pairs of eyes on him - two in particular boring deep below the layers of his skin to see the soul inside - while eagerly waiting to hear his account of who this stranger was and how he knew her, Takeda was honestly caught off his guard by this visit. Even as he lived the moment it was still incredible to believe that he was seeing this scene right: One minute Jin and Cassie were about to duke it out in a very warped office version of Mortal Kombat, and then the next he was being greeted in the Shirai Ryu custom by a girl he hadn't seen since before joining this new team. Technically speaking he knew how it was possible, yet at the same time he could not help but to question how this was happening. By the official attire she had obviously been sent by the Grandmaster, but what in the world would send her _here_?

Muddled mind jumping to several scenarios that ranged from mildly inconceivable to just plain absurd, he weighed the available evidence and speculated what it could have been. Hitomi's return alone spoke of something big, and her lingering thoughts of her mother did not bode well... Could it be that Evren-san was ill, maybe even dying?! Takeda would never replace his mother in the way he had his father, yet all the same Evren was something of a mother-figure to the boy... _No_ , he tried to rationalize to keep from letting his imagination run away from him, _if anything serious had happened to the demoness, Zyanyo_ , her eldest son, _would have set everything else aside to be there._

Takeda might have been greatly troubled by this six-inch ruler, however Jacqui was more than able to gather from the stunned and broken look on her boyfriend's face that there was some history there between the two, and judging from the shine in the uninvited guest's eyes, there were still some unresolved issues. For his sake, it had better be a short lesson. For her's and everyone else's, there had better not been some secret love-child waiting in the halls to meet daddy.

Jealous wasn't a word the former farmer would use to describe herself, nor would she say that she was threatened in any way by this cleavage-bearing enigma. Jacqui was just herself, and that meant that she had to tell the new girl (or was it the old ex?) what was what so that no one "accidentally" stepped over anyone else's toes. In her own personal experience, the remnant's daughter had encountered way too many of those types of girls that would stab you in the back without a second glance, and she wasn't prepared to suffer that sort lightly. Not again. "Are you another Shirai Ryu? I haven't seen you at the temple when I've visited Takeda." And her tone suggested that there had been many visits.

 _Steamy_! Cassie could just imagine her best friend pressed against the hard bark of a cherry tree in some stereotypical Japanese garden while Hanzo Hasashi drilled the other little ninjas in the practice yard a few dozen feet away, all the snot-nosed brats ignorant to the mild-mannered debauchery around them. Scorpion would probably know what was up between the couple, but somehow the blonde could imagine him knowing everything that happened behind his walls, for better or worse. And between her maturity and his gentlemanliness, how could it have gotten that X-rated? Although...

 _Hmm_ , Jin wondered almost aloud, _how many of the others were like Takeda and his sensei?_ True, Takahashi was a good enough friend that it was almost weird to think of him like that (almost), but at the same time there was no denying the truth - like his master before him, Takeda had somehow inherited the curse of having to bear a really nice ass. That really wasn't personal either, as even Cage agreed that that boy could rock virtually any pair of pants so long as he was seen from the rear.

 _But really, was Jacqui so naive as to think that she was the first girl Takeda ninja'd into his room at the temple?_ Takeda could hear the thought coming at him from all sides, or at least some variant of it. Jin's version was classic him, and Cassie was naturally protective of her friend and sister, but it was Hitomi's remark that really hit home with the mind-reader. Smug wasn't the word for it as there was a twinge of negativity behind her mental note, and anyways it was more the words she used than the way that she said it that made him stop and think twice. _I guess that you haven't spoken about me at all since then._

 _What good would that have done,_ he wanted to ask, but one look at his current paramour and he knew exactly what it would have meant if he had gotten into it. Had the medium not promised her early on in the proceedings that he would only read her mind when the situation called for it, Takeda gladly would have peered inside her head at this moment now that he saw what the others wouldn't have missed, but the look on her face told him it was probably a good idea to honor his word.

"Well?" Waiting for an answer to her question still, the dark-skinned beauty looked to the higher ranking of the two Shirai Ryu to start filling in at least some of the blanks, such as this little ingenue's name. She might need to know what name needed to be be engraved into the tombstone later.

Just a diminutive division of the full unadulterated truth, Hitomi had been been sent away by the Grandmaster after certain... _indiscretions_... came to light, her indefinite destination the Amazon in Earthrealm, the Living Forest in Outworld and countless other similar locales. _Doomed to sweat it out in the jungle until one of them moved on_ , that was her exact thought when given the task, and sweat she did. As a matter of fact, there had been a number of messages sent to her allowing a return if she so wished (the exact reasoning was much more professional on paper), the first dates magically coinciding with the saving of Earthrealm from Shinnok. Perhaps that was less about Takeda moving on and more up the ally of a mother being frightened for her daughter; either way one cared to look at it, the absent kunoichi had only just received an urgent summons to return home to the temple that week, less than five days ago.

That was her tale in a nutshell. Salty as the Dead Sea, the contents were cramped and ultimately it was not an especially fulfilling meal, yet it was what it was. "I've been in the field." Point in fact, the only time that Hitomi had been home with most of her immediate family since getting banished was when her mother gave birth to a little brother that they, in all of their infinite parental wisdom without the slightest traces of questionable past naming experiences, named Haruka.

 _Wow_ , the team all thought as one for maybe the first time, _that was really anticlimactic_.

Sensing their disappointment in the stunning lack of details her explanation carried, Hitomi glanced over at Takeda and inclined her head, _Care to have the honor of enlightening your friends? You know how shy I am._ Creeping up like a dense fog in a horror movie at just the right moment to introduce the killer, they were both suddenly reliving a certain scene that took place in a secluded grotto, the burning fluorescents of Cage's office suddenly melting away to the tender hues cast by the waxing crescent moon. _In front of strangers_.

Heart beating like a thunder clap amongst a stormy sky, Takeda still recalled the sensation of getting stuck in the mud as he joined her in the pearly pool, the both of them as naked as the day they were born. That felt like a lifetime ago now, a distant memory that he had not visited since getting a girlfriend to keep him company at night. Whatever her faults, things probably shouldn't have ended the way that they did... "Jacqui, Cass, Jin," Though he he was still somewhat at a loss for his ex's reappearance, he obliged the request, "this is Hasashi Hitomi." He gave that a moment to sink in. "The Grandmaster's daughter."

* * *

 **A/N:**

Ba-na-na-nun! Dramatic music please Mr. DJ! Seriously though, both Scorpion (especially in MK 2011) and Takeda have distractingly nice butts. In other words, Hitomi's not as tall as some of the other female characters, as well as lacking in their famed curves. And yeah, pretty sure that the only other thing I want to say for this chapter is that (and this applies throughout) I don't want to write Jin as some stereotype or parody. Well I don't want to have any of the characters being out of odds, but point.


	4. Ninjas Like to Keep it in the Family? !

Anyone who knew anything about Scorpion knew that he had a wife and young son before dying and becoming the wraith of legend, but what many did not know was that this time around he had secretly remarried a demoness from the Netherrealm, and had not one child but two, a daughter named Hitomi and son they called Haruka. Technically speaking, Evren had Hitomi before she was wed to Hanzo, but that was a lengthy and separate tale. A very long, complicated story, full of twists, turns, betrayal, and incredibly stupid decisions. Few enough knew the details - Takeda among them - but all that mattered at this time was the outcome.

As said outcome, Hitomi Hasashi smirked beneath her sable face mask at the utter shock this information caused the unprepared team, the scandal on their faces as delicious as it was abundant. For as many reasons that existed in the realms, the kunoichi took great pride in her parentage, yet it was not everyday that she got to reveal her bloodline. Suffering from no shortage of personal loss, her mother and father both forbade their offspring from shooting their mouths off about who dad was, which as aggravating as it was, she held her tongue. Lucky for him, it was much easier for her little brother to keep his trap shut. _Too bad he's not here, because that would totally make them all flip!_

"Say what now?" Cassie, for the third time in her life, was speechless. The first time she could barely recall as it happened so long ago, but the second time was one of those moments a kid could never really forget, no matter what other fucked up shit they saw in their lives. Let's just say that mom plus dad plus the dickiest teacher in the entire planet equaled a parent teacher conference that the press would never let the Cage family forget.

 _Scorpion had a kid?!_ Jacqui was so amazed by that news it completely slipped her mind to have a care for what she called her boyfriend's teacher and surrogate father, even knowing that the telepath could very well be reading her mind at the moment. Speaking of Takeda, it was one thing for him to somehow neglect to mention that he had had a brief thing with a fellow clan member, but to skip making something like this known was just... On one hand she understood that it was none of her business what happened within the Shrai Ryu as an outsider, let alone the intimate details of the Grandmaster's life, but given his relationship with Hanzo, it was like he had a sister that he had never told her about. Although if one thought about this Hitomi like his sister... Erugh, no wonder he never brought her up. _Hey girlfriend, this is my ex-girlfriend, who's pretty much a sister to me in every way that matters._ Yea, incest was a bit of a deal-breaker for her.

Dawning suddenly broke out on Cassie's face, a frown of deep disgust settling on her otherwise pretty countenance as words returned. "Eww, so if Hasashi here is Shirai Ryu and the Grandmaster's daughter, wouldn't that mean that she's your sister either way you looked at it? Please don't tell me we have our very own Asian Jaime Lannister on our hands."

"Seriously, that's just sick." Kung Jin piped up, disturbed that he would be agreeing with Cassie on anything.

Having absolutely no clue who Jaime Lannister was due to being on the road traveling between realms, Hitomi picked up on the context of the conversation and wondered if they were being serious or were just that special, gazing uncomfortably at Takeda for help in discerning which it was. Shaking his head at the lost cause between them, he took point on this issue, calmly applying liberal amounts of logic and ration, "Hitomi's not my sister and I'm not her brother. There's no kind of -cest going on here." Yes, they were clansmen and would die as such, but that didn't mean that they were the equivalent of ninja rednecks. "If someone lived in a limited community and married within that culture's parameters, does that mean that a man has married his sibling? The correct answer that you're looking for would be no, you freaks."

It was undeniable that they were close and always would be, for which there was no shortage of reasons, yet that did not mean that there was blood or some other familial bond that should creep anyone out. At least that's how they viewed it back when they were younger. To her nothing had changed in that chain of thought, and apparently by his speech it was the same for him as well. "My family's not black-and-white, but this much is, so you can all put it out of your minds."

Picturing a monochrome photograph of the Shirai Ryu grandmaster with this girl, some crone, and a hairless wonder that most would have called a baby, the archer saw the whole 'is it incest?' conversation as put to bed, which allowed him to envision a slightly larger view on the matter, or rather the same snapshot from a different perspective. "But I thought that Scorpion's family was offed by the old Sub-Zero before he fried?" Ever the kind and tactful, Kung Jin brought the opinion of the ignorant to light. _Yay, the joy continues to spread_ , Cassie thought to herself with a feeling that the cloud over her own head was beginning to lift. "When'd he have time for some boom boom pow with this one's mom?"

"Very nice, Jin!" Jacqui swatted him on the arm with enough force to make him wince. She might not have looked on this stranger with much favor under the circumstances, but that didn't mean that the other woman deserved to suffer the Shaolin's mouth.

Wow, he made it sound so clean and as if it were just a simple matter of borrowing sugar from the neighbors with the same cup you stole from the wife a few years back. _He must have quite the social life with friends sprouting from every corner and even his armpits_ , Hitomi decided. In spite of the amusing visual, Takeda knew his sensei's offspring well enough to know that she was really scowling at the reminder, looking every inch her father below the semi-concealing attire. "They were, but thanks for bringing that up. You should really mention that to him sometime, but definitely make sure of two things - you call him Scorpion and ask for vivid details, and that I'm there in the front seat for the ensuing bloodbath."

"Bravo!" Laughing out loud from the doorway, a second stranger left the shadow of Hitomi's boyish frame and entered the room, grinning in wolfish delight at the rest of the party members. Unlike the last caller, this one was clad in silver with two different shades of blue threading his skin-tight black leggings, the symbol of the Lin Kuei ornamenting his attire. "Pissing my sweet sister off already?" Despite the decorative bandages wrapped around his mouth, the young man made no attempt to quell his obvious mirth. Azure eyes sparkling like frosted chips of navy, he winked not-so-subtly at Kung Jin when they drew level, "I knew I was right for going to the bar last night." Even less subtly, the monk flushed at the remark.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Everyone's a little bit wrong in this chapter, wouldn't you agree? Well technically they're all just wrong in their own ways as it is, but let's not hold it against the kids, shall we? Sadly this chapter is shorter than the last two (hey, I'm not going to fry myself pushing for a set word limit, especially when some of the chapters just end at the best moments on their own), but that's ok. So just to clear up any confusion, Hitomi and Haruka are Hanzo's children with Evren, and Zyanyo is Hitomi's younger brother. So of all her brothers, Takeda is not one of them. Oh, and for the record Haruka is just a baby.


	5. A Princess at the Techno Party

Red, white, and strobe, the mismatched lamps and flashing bulbs inside the bar made up quite the impressive laser light show - thanks in part to Takeda's tinkering and Jax's designs - but for the most part the sparkling splendor was lost on Kung Jin. It wasn't that the Shaolin scorned a good party - he was as down to make the most of a night as the next guy - it was just that it felt as if he'd been stuck at this same soirée for half of an eternity now. Technically allowed to come and go as they pleased, the compound was pretty much home and prison now that the team was on constant stand-by; in all honesty that disgruntled lock-down vibe the General had going did lead to a fairly interesting nightlife, however no one Jin found lasted very long after the sun came up. Maybe it was just the monk in him, but the bowman wanted more than just a steamy one-night stand - he desired a spark that lingered and burned the body slow. It really shouldn't have been to much to ask.

"Not much of dancer?" Sliding up into the empty stool at the Shaolin's right, a well-built figure in sable riding leathers removed an electric blue motorcycle helmet to reveal a cocksure grin and glossy midnight locks that fell well below his shoulders and crept towards his waist. Besides the occasional silver bead interwoven in his silky strands, his hair reminded Jin of that DJ or whatever with the glasses. Takeda and the girls probably would have known his name, but frankly at that moment he didn't give a shit and a nickel what they knew. Well he rarely ever cared to hear Cassie's two-cents, but that was besides the point. "Or is this just not your scene?"

Enticing and just the right kind of dangerous, whoever this stranger was and wherever he came from, it was apparent that he certainly wasn't any sort of SF. Visitors weren't unheard of on the base (especially at night) - General Blade probably would have prohibited them if she could though just to cut down on the paperwork. although some theories might debate the actual reason - but this guy seemed to be alone. Oh dear, what a dilemma. _Not really._ "If the music's good and I can find a partner that can keep up."

Sapped over their color from his strategic placement against the brunt of the lights, the stranger's dark eyes lit up as the smile widened, "Got an MP3 player back in the barracks?"

Taking a deliberate sip from his glass, Kung Jin surveyed the would-be partner with a more critical eye. You could say what you wanted to about the reformed thief, but whatever words came, "easy" would not be one of them. Glittering mischievously, his teeth were well-cared for and even, but the smiles he flashed came a little too easy for him, which could have meant a million different things. Positive that he had never met this guy before, Jin couldn't shake the feeling that there was something about the eyes that was familiar, that they resembled someone he knew... _But who?_ Hmm, that one would nag at him.

Scrutiny was nothing new for the voyager, and in this day and age a little extra caution was a good thing, so he wasn't about to just give up because of a moment's contemplative silence. Hell, he might even consider trying to push this one past the first rejection, assuming that he decided against going with the moment. "Z," the man introduced himself with a sly smirk, "that's not my name, but you can call me that if you want to." Casually leaning closer as if they had known each other for years, the suave drifter placed a hand about half-way on Jin's thigh, whispering something more in a satin purr so that only the monk could hear, the words causing a crimson blush to creep across the archer's cheeks.

 **Later...**

And that was the abridged version of how Kung Jin met Zyanyo the night before: no names, no factions; hell, there were barely any words at all after they left the bar together. It was a good night, but this? This was a fucking massacre of a family reunion, made that much more awkward by the hissing fit between the twins when the younger of the two entered the office. _Seriously, who did they think they were, Mileena?_ And naturally Cassie was there to add fuel to that inferno.

Groaning at yet another person just strolling into her office like it was Grand Central or something, the blonde threw her arms dramatically into the air, "What do you people think this is, some kind of cheap motel for questionable late night hook-ups?!" Ok, so maybe catching Jin in a torrid affair would have been more interesting than aggravating to her any other time, but these punks were really getting on her nerves with all of their remarks and rude intrusions. "Anyone else hiding out there just waiting for the right moment to test my patience? Just come on in and make yourselves at home!"

Taking her up on that offer the boy planted himself on the edge of her desk, ignoring both the papers that shuffled beneath his weight and the audible scowl on his sister's face. It wasn't like they would be staying here long, but that could still be longer than he cared to stand around, milling his arms about like some jackass. _Like Hitomi-hime, in other words._ "Thanks, Blondilocks and the Three Stooges." Sparing the one fine piece of ass in the room from that count, he glanced over at Takeda, _you wanna tell her what I'm thinking, or should I?_

Grumbling about not wanting to get involved in their sibling rivalry (as if that's ever stopped them from dragging him into the fray), the blind man's son grudgingly relayed the message for the non-minder readers in the enclosed cubicle, "Zyanyo means you Hitomi-"

"Thanks," fuming to the point of seeing red she snapped at Takeda, less than thrilled by her younger brother's arrival, "I got that." Setting aside the facts that their clans were currently on friendly terms with the other and that she was in the presence of virtual strangers, the Shirai Ryu was not deterred in the slightest from laying into her blood, "Elder Gods, Zy you are insufferable! Alliance be damned, the only thing keeping me from slapping that ridiculous fucking grin off your face is our mother! If we didn't share the womb, I would swear that you were really your precious step-father's bastard that she had the decency to claim, and not the other way around."

 _"_ Yikes." Half horrified and half titillated to hear the rest of that story, Jacqui turned to the person that knew these two the best and whispered to her boyfriend, "Are these two always so pleasant?"

Overhearing the question as clearly as the rest, Zyano chose to reply to that first as he thought up the meanest thing he could say to his sister's little show. "The shrew? Hardly. But me? I'm a basket of roses to her hissing basilisk. Personally I think she'd be a lot nicer if she let loose every now and again, but the last time she had the luck to get laid was when Techno here broke up with her." Deliberately dragging up the past and airing her dirty laundry without a thought of who or what it hurt, Zyano could care less what his sister got up to in her spare time. Unless some douchebag had truly hurt Hitomi, he figured that their family had more than enough to deal with without one more person breathing up and down her ass.

Now Jacqui had to face the facts that there was a past between Takeda and Hitomi, but that didn't keep Specialist Briggs from glaring straight death at her other half, "You two dated?"

"Dated, popped each other's cherry, call it whatever you want to." Zyanyo was blind to the discomfort he was causing, merely adding fuel to that fire. "Techno and Daddy's Girl were actually a pretty cute couple, considering how clueless they were." Partially genuine, Zyanyo glance between the pair, "Why did you two break up anyways? Daddy?" He smirked knowingly, "Heaven forbid that the man you just barely met disapproved of his surrogate son boinking his precious long-lost daughter up and town the temple whenever his back was turned."

 _And people think that I'm bad!_ Jin and Cassie thought privately to themselves, _I least I know when to draw the line_.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Do keep in mind that I point out that Jin wants more than just a fling and isn't easy. Oh, and bt-dubs, Hitomi and Zyanyo are twins. Speaking of Zyanyo (yes, his hair is cut similar to Skrillix), when he refers to his sister as Hitomi-hime, it is largely condescending. Yeah, pretty sure that this was one speaks for itself, so just sit back, enjoy, and please at least think about reviewing!


	6. Twin-sues, (A-Cut)

Twins born from different fathers was an exceptionally rare thing, but it was not unheard of. Hitomi and Zyanyo were such twins, the elder of the two conceived by the succubus Evren and Hanzo Hasashi back when he was still the vengeful wraith Scorpion, the younger coming from a revenant under the complete and unbroken control of Quan Chi. Subject of more than one kind of horror, their mother had run and hid away when she discovered she was no longer alone within her body, keeping the pregnancy hidden from all, even the man she had come to love. In her mind, the silence was to protect the baby (she would learn much later down the line that it was babies) from harm or threat. When she had been married to her previous husband, their enemies had little to no qualms about targeting the expectant mother, and she would be damned before that happened again. Perhaps it was irony that returned the newly pregnant mother-to-be to that same ex-husband when she found herself in need of a place to hide and raise her children.

"Excuse me," a soldier whose name Cassie did not know poked his head into the office door, clearly alarmed by the sound of raised voices pouring out of the open portal, "Umm, Sargent Cage? Your moth-" He caught himself, wringing his hands together nervously, "I mean the General wants to see you in her office. Now." Growing more high-pitched, his voice was little more than a squeak at the end, "All of you. The visitors too." _Jesus fucking Christ_ , Cass thought to herself as everyone turned to leave at the summons, _I hope that this kid never has to actually see the field, because he's straight-up fodder for the enemy._

Looking relieved that he had delivered his message in one piece without anything getting thrown at his head (he knew that the team were all lethal and capable of various types of projectiles, so it was a safe bet that the strangers were too), the soldier scraambled off ahead of the group, lingering just long enough to say that he had brought them to General Blade as ordered. The closest to the back wall, Cassie stood up and watched as Jacqui glared at Takeda one last time before huffing off after the soldier, leaving the rest in her dust. _And here they started the day so happy together, holding hands and all hearts and flowers and all that other stereotypical girly crap_. Half prepared to chase after her to apologize on the walk to Sonya's quarters, the telepath thought better of getting his balls busted beyond repair and opted to give her some space, allowing Kung Jin and Zyanyo to pass him by. In spite of the ugliness with his twin sister, the Lin Kuei seemed more than happy to chase after the shaolin monk. _Eww_.

And so that left Takeda and Hitomi. "I'm sorry about my brother."

Cassie had no idea if that contrition was meant for her fellow tongue-twister or if it was meant for the blonde (and possibly the team as an extension), so she left that one to Takeda to answer, who seemed than than hasty to jump on it on his own anyways. "Hey all it cost me was some good-will with my girlfriend that I'll probably never get back." Whatever the female ninja thought in her mind, it caused Techno (seriously, she'd have to remember that one and tell her dad about it) to quirk a brow in her direction. Cage might not have been quick to sing his praises out loud, but she had always thought of him as fairly intelligent, but an intellectual would do well to remember that his girlfriend's best friend and life-long sister was standing right there. "We should hurry up before anyone gets the wrong idea," by which Takeda obviously meant either Zyanyo or Jacqui, "or worse, the General comes after us herself."

 _Good point_. Cassie threw herself forward and around her desk, practically shoving the other two out of the door in her hurry to appease her mother's strict rules; angering Sonya was the last thing to do on Cassandra's agenda that day, but that didn't mean she was about to leave her best friend's boyfriend alone with an old ex, especially when they were so awkward around the other. If she hadn't known any better, the gum-popping warrior princess might have thought that the mind-reader was just inept around the opposite sex as he grew up in a non-mammary zone, but she did, so it came to her that perhaps all the bumbling and fumbling was latent sexual tension. _I'm watching the two of you_ , Cassie screamed repeatedly in her mind so that Takeda didn't miss the warning.

"Great." Was all that the frowning mind-reader had to say that most generous display of teamwork, which personally only alerted the blonde further to potential treasons, fueling her suspicions about Hitomi and what it was she really wanted here. Although in fairness, if Takeda had actually tried to deny that there was anything up between the pair of Shirai Ryu, that only would have looked so much worse for him. So basically either way, he was guilty and screwed in the Sargent's mind.

Keeping pace with ease even in spite of her shorter legs, _from years of practice matching Takeda's every movement,_ Cassie wondered, the other girl seemed to be greatly distracted and in her own head, nearly walking off in the wrong direction three different times (and that was only the half-way count). Had they not been there with the twin to steer her in the right direction, the kunoichi easily would have gotten herself hopelessly lost and turned around. _Seriously_ , Cage pondered in earnest, _what kind of a ninja gets that perplexed as to not understand the visitor's map of the base? Even most three year olds could understand them, so how in the blue hells was this full-grown adult messing up so badly?_ Technically it made sense with a spat like that (Cassie couldn't imagine what it would be like to be related to someone like Kung Jin, or was interested in someone of that type), but wasn't it in their super secret shinobi training to lock that kind of thing away? Feelings, in other words.

Speaking up out of the blue just before they rounded the last few corners to the General's office, Hitomi sounded as far away as she looked, "I haven't seen Zyanyo since Haruka was born. He made it clear that he only showed up for our mother, yet when he got to hold the baby, he smiled at me. Was I really such a fool to think that he meant it?" _Wow, whatever happened between the Wonder Twins, it really was upsetting her._ "Zy and I were like other twins ought to be when we were growing up with our step-father, but when we found out that everything we knew was a lie, he turned to me to be as hurt as he was. But I wasn't - I saw the pain our mother tried to hide all those years, and when she came to us and revealed everything, I understood why she did it the way that she did. I think that what upset Zy the most was not that our fathers were different, nor even that we had been deceived. No, what hurt him the most was that I wasn't as betrayed as he was, that I understood. I don't know," the lost child shook her head without seeing the world around her, "but I wonder if he resents me for my parents... Our mother had barely even spoken to his father before she had us, but the torch she carried for my dad was just painfully obvious. It broke her heart having to keep us from him, but she was a mother and had to make a choice. This time, she chose us."

Engrossed in the monologue, Cassie couldn't help but to blurt out in curiosity, "What do you mean this time? Who's Twin-sue's real dad? If your mom was into Scorpion," the blonde ignored Takeda's scowl of disapproval at calling his sensei by a name that the man truly loathed (but still sometimes allowed himself to go by, probably since it was so bad-ass), "why was there a step-father in the picture?" Thinking for a second before she let that be the last question she asked, Sargent Cage had one last inquiry, "Who is this step-father of whom you speak?"

Horror-movie slow and missing the underlying mockery that naturally peppered Cassie's attitude, Hitomi turned her brown eyes on to the other female, their depths unclouding to a degree as she snapped back to the present situation, "That's Emren's story."

"Who the fuck is Emren?" Cassie was honestly at a loss for that one.

Takeda, who knew the vast majority of the twins' backstory, knew exactly who Emren was and what Hitomi meant when she said that her mother had chosen her children this time, but what he did not quite know was that she felt that way about the situation with her brother. Many a night had she come crying to her closest friend about this slight or that (especially when they had first come to the temple, before arrangements had been made for the cyromancer to study beneath his blood), and gradually the story revealed itself to him, but what he had never heard was how she blamed herself for the sudden dissent. Maybe Hitomi really had grown-up. _Her boobs have certainly grown since the last time we met_.

* * *

 **A/N:**

As in she's Johnny's warrior princess, as said early on in the MK X comic. Maybe it's just my lack of actually reading comics or my bias for MK speaking, but is that not a great story?! Seriously, I do wonder why Kung Jin has zero mention in it (I was expecting to see him in the last two issues, but maybe that predates his one known flashback?), but then again so much happens in it, it shouldn't be that strange to me that he's been absent up until this point. Or the entire story, looking at how everything's progressed.

Twin-sues, as in twin issues.


	7. Twin-sues, (B-Cut)

**Meanwhile, on the way to General Blade's office...**

Glaring at no one and nothing in particular - although if she had eyes in the back of her head Briggs would likely be flashing Zyanyo one of those fabled looks that could kill - Jacqui kept her deep tawny eyes on the floor as she power-walked to Sonya's office, imagining Hitomi's face and how great Takeda would think she looked with a big black eye and a couple missing teeth. Or for that matter, how would Jin feel about Zyanyo's come-ons if the Lin Kuei were to be suddenly become a girl for all intents and purposes. Ok, so maybe she was channeling Cassie and her dad in that second answer, what with their famed ball-buster fighting styles, but that didn't make their approach any less wrong in this situation.

Again, it wasn't that revenant's offspring and revered beauty was jealous about meeting the girl that had taken her boyfriend's - at this point questionable - virtue (and vice versa); Jacqui was pissed off because she had to find out that way, and in front of the rest of the team too. Of course she would have told Cassie pretty much everything about that encounter anyways, but this was not only humiliating, it also stole the choice of how much fat she could trim from the bovine before it was slaughtered and sent to the dinner table. She should have had that chance, but more than that, Takeda should have trusted her enough to tell her those kinds of intimate things. _I trusted him with my scars_.

Inattentive to both their quivering leaf of a guide and the furious powerhouse that was Specialist Briggs, Zyanyo and Kung Jin were rather busy entertaining the other. Mostly it was just shameless back-and-forth flirting, but the cryomancer wasn't quite prepared to let their first night together die, and the archer (who was more than into remembering what almost transpired) cared enough about his team to attempt to get to the bottom of what brought on that dazzling display of asshole-ness. What could he say, they were all starting to grow on him in their own ways, even Cassie, although that was more like a fungus or malignant growth.

"You surprised me last night," Zyanyo whispered to the monk with a devious smirk, careful to keep one eye on the others at all times as to not take a wrong turn and get Jin in trouble with the General for missing the entire meeting, or at the very least strolling into the office halfway through a tirade, all disheveled and bright red from intensive groping. So far as the General went he'd heard stories, though he'd never actually seen the woman for himself, and so far as the Shaolin was concerned, never before had the Lin Kuei beheld anything half as beautiful, or as fascinating. So in other words, if the twin had the opportunity to catch the bowman alone, he was certainly going to seize it and capitalize upon it. "I have to admit, when we went back to your room last night, I didn't expect the night to end with my clothes on. And here I took half a minute to actually think about what would make the best appeal while being the fastest to rip off."

Crude, crass, and apparently without a single care in the world, Jin thought that Zyanyo was something else than what he tried to put out there in the world, something that couldn't quite be hit in just a single shot - which only served to intrigue the monk. It was undeniable that whatever went down in Cage's office was hardcore and intense, but that didn't mean that any of them should judge and define Zyanyo for it. It wasn't like they knew Hitomi at all, and even Takeda hadn't seen her in years, so for what they all knew she deserved everything that she got in that room. Now maybe that was also an unfair assumption, but he was just the tinsiest bit biased.

But seriously, after what 'Z' whispered in his ear last night to encourage the decision to move their party of two to a more private locale, the line about removing his clothes was nothing that you couldn't say to a devote and most pious nun. "I guess last night will never know how fast it would have taken us to get off what it took you two hours to stuff yourself into." Implying that there was still wiggle room in the future for them to make that discovery, it was Jin's turn to flash a smile, just daring the other man to make his next move. _The good thing about Zyanyo was that he was obviously the type of guy that would, with or without an invitation_.

Pursuing his lips beneath the wraps while his blue blue eyes widened like dinner plates, Zyan was pleasantly surprised by the Shaolin, "My my, someone's a naughty little monk. I have half a mind to punish you for using that kind of language."

"And what's the other half telling you to do with me?" Jin couldn't pass that one up.

Ever his personal signature, the Lin Kuei cocked his head to the side and beamed at the archer, although this particular grin was up the ally of 'boy, I am going to just devour you whole, and if you don't watch it, that's going to be sooner than later.' Kung Jin had made his stance on how far to take this thing clear from the very beginning, and Zyanyo respected that. Parts of him may have turned blue that had no business being that color, but still he respected that boundary. Besides, it wasn't as if he got nothing in return - two and a half hours of tonsil hockey and a rather feisty companion was more than worth the delay in his book. "Now or later?"

 _Oh_ , the bowman liked the tone in the other male's voice, but he liked the way he was leaning closer even more, something stirring deep below at the thought that anything could happen next, _he's just an incorrigible scoundrel, isn't he_? More than twenty-seven twenty-eighths tempted to continue this particular conversation, Kung Jin was not quite so blinded as to miss that this would be his best possible chance to play detective for the sake of the team - those jerks had better appreciate this grand gesture. "If you tell me something now," no stranger to gambling with questionable odds, Jin already had such terms prepared in his mind for circumstances such as these, "I can make it worth your while later." _Subtle, very subtle Jin_. At least Zyanyo (aside from just being quite the looker below all that fabric), seemed interested in this bargaining game, his sparkling yet maddeningly familiar orbs toying with taking the bait. _It was some damn good bait, so he'd be a fool to pass it up, trap or no_.

Just as Kung Jin predicted, Zyanyo mulled the monk's deal over as they walked ever closer to their determined destination, acutely aware of how much of a fool he would have to be to ignore this as-of-yet undefined offer while also weighing what it might be that the slightly older man wanted to ask into. If it pertained to the cyomancer's heritage, there were certain areas that were such a dark shade of black no one would ever get access, but there were some spots of gray and white that would came for free, no payment required. Likely though, it would trace back around to his darling sister and what that ugly mess was all about. Not that he could blame him for wanting some insight after a display like that. _I'd want answers too if our roles had been reversed_.

 _Damn, damn, quadruple dammit!_ Cursing his upbringing (though hardly for the first time), Zyanyo shook his head, "No, you don't have to put yourself in that position. I mean I won't stop you if that's what you really want and this was just your flimsy excuse," shrugging at the lack of a replay, the junior snowman did what he considered to be a decent job of hiding the disappointment there, "but you don't have to feel like you have to." Speaking up so that Jacqui could hear this as well, Zyanyo revealed himself before the court, "You want to know why things are so bad between me and my sister? I'll tell you, free of charge." _Knowing Hitomi, she probably already broke down and cried to Takeda_. "Our mother raised us without our biological fathers. For over ten years we lived happily, just the four of us, but one day she came back from her yearly 'World Tour of Sorry' and told us every horrible detail that led from our half-sister to how she met her own father, which led to us. That led to the revelation that we were actually half-siblings as well, although since no one else in the family is a cryomancer that should have been fairly obvious." It wasn't, not before that. "She made us both swear that we wouldn't go around just blabbing who our dads are, but since I only had to just promise her, I see it that my old man doesn't care who knows about his shame."

"Wh-who," the guide had shambled back like a hermit crab and blurted out before he could stop himself, "who is your dad?"

Eyeing him critically so that the peon shrank back like the yellow-bellied coward he was, Zyanyo looked at the other two family members of legendary fighters and decided to just tell them, as if it should have been that hard to guess, "The Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, although you," you being the pussy, "might know him better as Sub-Zero." Well it was either him or Bi-Han, but seeing as the elder brother was already dead by the time that Quan Chi sniffed out the blooming romance between his daughter and prized assassin and made Kuai Liang step in, the newly-dubbed Noob Saibot had already been fed to a soulnado. Besides, Evren swore that she had only known so many lovers in all her centuries alive, and the only cryomancer on that list (because that's exactly the kind of thing every son needs to hear about his mother) was the former Tundra. _Now if I care to believe that story..._ Holding their attention, the Lin Kuei continued with explaining why his sister was the bane of his existence. "Hitomi accepted everything, just like that. Different dads or not, we were supposed to be twins. How could she not see what was wrong with the picture like I did? Our mother lied to us, and worse she even made the man who raised us with her lie! But no, she was fine with it. And to add insult to injury, we left our home in Outworld after a huge fight that began with our step-father asking to keep me," at least someone had the sense to see how this news was all affecting him, "and moved to the Himalayas so they could meet with Scorpion and work things out. That was hard enough on me for my twin to chose the other half of her family, but that heartless bitch had to go and pick him over me! It was like she stopped loving me the instant she found out that we weren't blood."

"Him," Jacqui whispered more to herself than the guys, "being Takeda."

* * *

 **A/N:**

Well I was waiting for the reveal that Sub-Zero was Zyanyo's father, but meh, it works just as well here. Now before I come under heavy fire for this one, I would like to say in my defense that I do not think that Kuai Liang is that type of person in the slightest. Then why you ask would I put such a plot line in my story? Simple - it bothers me that Sub-Zero is so alone. Not even thinking romantically, it bugs me that he has no one to be close to! Scorpion has Takeda, so why can't Sub-Zero have someone too? Yes yes, I realize that he's training Frost, but come on, I think we all know where that one's going, so I don't count that. Not enough of a reason to give him such a dark role you say? Well I also point out he was not in control of himself for the whole time he was under Quan Chi's command, and as much as I do love the necromancer, I wouldn't put this kind of despicable act beyond him. Maybe that's not fully concrete, so I'll point out just how much he hated himself after being freed from the sorcerer in the comic, and bring up his intro/banter with Mileena. Maybe it was just me, but so much of that screamed something happened there, and I just can't see them interacting without some kind of a catalyst. Granted that's a whole other train of thought with me, but really, that banter implies another side of Sub-Zero...

And speaking of banter/intros, there was one of Kung Jin's (I can't recall who the other person was, but I want to say was either Erron or Reptile) where he asks if he owes the other person money (maybe Kitanta?). To me, that would imply that he's no stranger to gambling, or at least asking other people for loans, but given all of the evidence, I want to say gambling. Seriously, a rather interesting monk, despite not knowing nearly enough.


	8. Sonya Doesn't Curtsy

Stammering and stuttering worse than what they suspected he was capable of - honestly were he not the son of a high ranking official that would have given needless hell for it, he likely would have been dismissed from service already - he bumbled through acting the herald of old as he announced that the Sargent, her team, and the two visitors had arrived, but only after the entire group had rejoined itself into one moody mass. With the curt nod of the General herself, the soldier took his leave blissfully, more than eager to be gone from the intimidating presence and mounting dramas of these six twenty-somethings. Watching him go with the feeling that he wouldn't be very missed (frankly they were already working on forgetting all about the soldier that delivered them to this point), they all filed into the office one-by-one after a brief exchange with Sonya.

"General." Jacqui was the first through the door, head held high and a professional demeanor in place.

As her Godmother and partial namesake, Sonya could smell beyond the perfume to the bullshit below, "Jacqui, if you want to hang back after the meeting, feel more than free."

 _Hmph_ , Cassie scoffed from her place as second in the line, _she'd never say that to me, and I'm her actual daughter_. Well as she learned long ago there was no use crying over what was, so the Sargent followed after her friend, casual and nonchalant as ever. "Mom."

Sonya Blade put a careful and keen emphasis upon her words to her daughter, "Sargent." This was official business that called them here, so there was little room to be motherly. Besides, their guest might find it in poor taste under his circumstances. More than used to that kind of behavior from Cassie's father, Sonya ignored the melodramatic sigh that parted from Cassandra's lips as she vanished into the room beyond.

"Don't even try it." The General warned Takeda when she saw him attempt to get some foresight on what this call was all about. Tone lightening by a fraction of an octave, something like a smirk almost crossed the older woman's permascowl, "Someone's waiting inside to see you."

Curious as to who that might be this time, Takahasi was honestly more than a little bit burnt on unexpected company by this point. Rationally it was going to be either his father or his sensei, but in fairness he wasn't exactly under the impression that he would see Hitomi anytime soon, and look at how that one turned out. "I can't wait."

More than just a little bit shocked to see the General out here to greet them all herself, Kung Jin figured that she had just been on her way out to wrangle them up since they were taking too long for her impatient being. _For once that was a semi-justified conclusion_. "Mama Blade."

Rolling her eyes, she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to hurry the prickly archer on, "Just get in there Jin."

With the team inside the tent of filing cabinets and shelves of war medals, that only left the twins to formally receive (although technically she had seen the boy late last night when he was crawling back to the bowman's quarters with the monk himself). As opposed to the rest of the team she had in mind for this particular job, the General hailed them as one, "I'm sorry-"

"Why? She's not gone yet." Refusing to think about it lest his thoughts and acceptance make it real, Zyanyo cut across the General and followed the others into the office, back straight as an arrow and jaw stiff below the layers of his mask, all of his easy smiles gone.

Wondering to herself, _just what does his father allow him to get away with_ , the Shirai Ryu took a deep breath and shook her head at the despicable display of disrespect, feeling forced to apologize for him once more. "I'm really sorry about my brother ma'am. I'd say that he's just afraid for the future, but really he's just an asshole." Hitomi didn't finish her train of thought out loud, but it was still very evident upon her face as she entered the office, _although that's my fault_.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Probably should have mentioned this in the last two updates, but see what I mean by being forgetful? It may or may not interest you to know that the first five chapters came from a single draft of less than 2,400 words. The next two? All me, all on the fly. Well actually it's all me anyways, but I think that that bit came from me watching so much 'Evil Dead' the past week or so. And yes, that was a nod to the first movie. Sadly yes, this chapter is the shortest one yet, but that doesn't make it any less than the others!

Thanks very much to **KynthiaOlympia** for the first review!


	9. Plotting or Fate?

**About a month ago...**

Swirling gently, the crystalline shards carried in the air revealed which way the snowy winds blew, the sky watery as spilled paints against the distinguished peaks that cut the Lin Kuei territory. Bathed in fire long ago, Hanzo Hasashi could scarcely even tell that there was a slight drop in temperature as the day wore on, yet he could clearly feel the slight shivering of his companion, even through the layer of undyed wool she had taken up. Questioning himself as to why a demon should be bothered by the climate, the Shirai Ryu Grandmaster was glad that they had kept Haruka at home for this visit. More human than his sister, there was no telling how being out in the mountains would affect his system.

"Hanzo," Kuai Liang refilled the cups of his honored guests as they discussed the peace treaty further, "Our meetings seem to be making great progress for the both of our clans, but I still worry about certain individuals and how they will behave when our first real test of unity comes." Frost would never stop being a source of concern it seemed at this junction, but it was not the female cyromancer he had brought them here to discuss. No, Sub-Zero felt it was necessary to bring up the boy. "Zyanyo grows quickly under my instruction, but I fear that he will not hear my words when I speak of other matters that lie outside of the Lin Kuei."

The Icy Thorn, Hanzo called the boy. Evren wasn't particularly fond of that title for her boy, but she acknowledged that it could have been worse. "He came to train under you before we made our treaty," the former wraith chose his words with care, as to not offend their host and imply that he had done all he could to poison the boy's mind against the Shirai Ryu, as the old Lin Kuei were so wont to do, "he listens to you, respects you. Can you not use that to temper him?"

Shaking his head, the other Grandmaster had to disagree that it was so simple as that, "I have tried not only as Grandmaster but as his father as well, but making him see the truth is like commanding the sea." Not for the first time Kuai Liang glanced over at Evren, blue eyes brimming over with remorse and apology, "Zy will not hear of any of it, not from me, nor his mother. He still holds much aggression in his heart over how the situation was handled. Perhaps if his sister were to speak with us, he could hear some semblance of sense."

 _Sense_? If Hitomi had ever used her head, he would not have had to send her away to act as emissary and scout. "I have sent many letters to Hitomi in Outworld, some asking her to return home, and we have had only two replies back." The first response was accompanied by the girl herself, returned home to be there by her mother's side for the birth of her youngest brother, and the second was written by the half-sister they always knew of. "Emren tells us that the girl is burying herself in her work and will not return unless it is a dire emergency."

On one hand Evren was still sore with her husband for sending their daughter away in the first place, but on the other she did not wish to display that there was even the smallest trace of a problem between them, not even to Kuai Liang, so she refrained from glaring at her spouse at the mention of the lacking correspondence. So instead of betray emotion, the succubus from the Netherrealm frowned into her tea and spoke in a measured tone that betrayed the mother she was. "As Shirai Ryu, she obviously wants to appease her father, and what better way than to do what is in her power to do as the Grandmaster asked?" _In his hot-headed anger_ , Evren mentally accused. "If anyone knows what it's like to want to obey orders when the heart is conflicted, it should be us."

Noting that the bleached bone of gold had neglected to specify exactly what (and whom) she was referring to, Sub-Zero flashed back roughly twenty years ago to when the three of them were all still under Quan Chi's control, his own frozen hands clasping so tight at her throat it was a miracle that her head didn't come popping off. There was scarcely a modicum of fight left in her at that moment, so really it made little sense that he should be strangling her like that, and yet he could still feel his fingers flexing around her windpipes, crushing them with sickening ease. In hindsight he liked to think that the act of suffocating his victim was some small sliver of humanity in him that he did not recognize acting, the dormant part surfacing at the last possible moment just to spare her from whatever pain and humiliation would come next, but he knew that that was bullshit, that the violence was not borne of a shade of sentiment but rather the warping of the sorcerer.

Pleas echoing like the remnants of a nightmare he could not force himself to forget, Kuai Liang could still see Evren crying out for someone - anyone - to save her from that hell, the silent tears rolling down her cheeks visible in the light radiating from the pool used to spawn revenants. Twenty years ago or in this very instant, the cryomancer saw her begging on hands and knees, a thin scarlet line dripping down a busted lip to coalesce in the crevice of her collarbone before trailing down lower and lower on the snowy field that was her body, winding ever so slowly between her breasts... Not that the Grandmaster looked long enough to notice since that night, but after successfully giving birth to four children her body continued to hold up well, although that was likely due to what she was and who she had married.

And speaking of her chosen spouse, Hanzo seemed to have come up with the beginnings of a plan. "Maybe there is a way we can bring our daughter home _and_ help your boy to see that I'm not the enemy, that our clans would greatly benefit from co-operation."

Eager to hear this new scheme hatchery and acutely unaware of the recollections dancing through the head of the living snowman, Evren pulled her humble shawl tighter and took another generous sip of tea to stifle the tickle of a cough forming in the back of her throat, "Both? Now that would be an impressive feat for the two of your clans if whatever you're planning can be pulled off." Mending things with Hitomi would be a cinch considering her feelings for her father, but Zyanyo... He would almost never listen to his legal step father as a certainty, as even his biological father had a hard enough time curbing that boy's willful nature, but maybe they could wrangle up a way to make him understand... If his "step-father", or rather the man that had helped raise him but who had little to do with her during that period would encourage him, maybe Zyanyo could come around... "If you really want this to work, you had best-" Gagging unexpectedly on her own tongue and something that wasn't quite saliva, the demoness held up a finger to ask their patience while she composed herself, "I don't know where that came from, pardon me. What I was saying was that this little endeavor, assuming that I'm on the same page, will require a team effort."

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

Tea parties for the win! As for being under Quan Chi's control, each of the three were under the necromancer's thumb one way or another, but not necessarily the same as the last. When I say "bleached bone of gold", I mean that her hair is like a pallid golden hue that's also a kind of grayish-tan ecru-like color. And so far as I mean about her body holding up because of who she married, I can imagine them being that healthy couple that spend half their time just working out. And on a technical behind-the-scenes kind of note, I actually wrote this chapter three chapters ago.

And another thanks for the review **KynthiaOlympia**! It's really appreciated when people review to let me know how the story is going from a non-biased viewpoint, and to ask for things that you'd like to see or else should see between the characters, if that makes sense.


	10. Take Her, and Kiss the Crap Outta Her

Less of a handsomely cavernous room and more a maze of metal filing containers and display cases of opulent wood with glass that was polished to an impossible sheen, Sonya Blade's office seemed nearly as crowded as Cassie's did even though it was easily twice as big. A desk stood not in the far corner as the case was in Cage's office but loomed more towards the center, albeit nearly as far back as far could go. There were four seats lined opposite the General's impressive and expensive custom leather chair, her's a lush shade of sable while the others were a soft heather gray. Two of them were noticeably vacant while one was occupied by a man gently rocking a toddler back and forth in his strong arms, the seat next to him taken by the baby's bright purple carrier. Upon seeing that the team (and twins) had arrived, the man nodded to the General to shut the office door.

A dark-haired youth swaddled in thin traveling layers of breathable butter, the baby peeked over his father's shoulder with eyes of melted butterscotch, a smile of recognition on his round face when he saw Takeda and Jacqui, who had both been visiting the Shirai Ryu temple quite often as of late. Reaching out for the mind-reader almost right away, Haruka began to squirm insistently until he was passed to the telepath; gingerly the boy took the infant in his arms, smiling all the while. Glad as he was to see Haruka and Hanzo, he had one question for the father, "Grandmaster, why do you have Haruka? Shouldn't Evren-san be here too?"

Partially glad of having his arms back to himself, the former wraith also missed the weight of his son, but as Grandmaster he betrayed none of that when he answered his pupil, "Hitomi. You didn't tell him?" Completely casting his glance over his wife's son as if he didn't exist or was just a rather uninteresting piece of furniture, Hanzo Hasashi addressed his daughter, looking somewhat confused as to why she had not explained the situation to the boy. Perhaps, he mused with a foul taste in his mouth, it had less to do with her duties and more to do with affections he thought had been deadened long ago. Mayhap it was merely Takeda's allies causing a shake-up over certain revelations coming to light - it certainly was in Cassandra's genetic make-up to be as disruptive and difficult as she could be - but more likely it was the icy thorn himself. For Evren's sake he wanted to accept the boy, but there was just too much history behind his heritage, too much pain. He did try, but every time he looked into those insolent blue eyes, all he could see was the illusion Quan Chi had cast of Sub-Zero the night he lost it all, or just as bad Evren herself after the necromancer had seen fit to punish her through the Lin Kuei.

As if sensing that thought, the boy glared over at him with those same hateful blue eyes, the wish for Hanzo's untimely demise and gruesome suffering nigh tangible. Whatever else she had been or may have done, Evren was still his mother, and Zyanyo loved her; were it not for that love however, he would likely be trying to hasten that end himself, but as it stood... Dour, the younger of the two twins turned to face his sister for the first time since their spat, figuring that he should include Hitomi in the Hasashi family love-fest. Rightly so, she cast her head down under the pressure of his stare, ashamed.

Lines admittedly blurred between father and Grandmaster at this point, Hanzo wanted very much to stand up for his daughter and protect her (even from her brother), but for many reasons he knew that he could not. It was true that he may have missed the first ten or so years of her life, but that did not change the fact that they were blood, that he loved her and only wanted the best for her. Right or wrong for the decision to split them up, he knew without the guilt his wife laid at his feet that he ought to make amends, yet he would not apologize for doing what he thought was best, especially not here and now, when there were much more pressing issues to handle, such as what brought them all together now.

Aware of all eyes on her at this moment, the brunette nodded more to give herself the courage than to acknowledge an order, her eyes finding Takeda once more. "My..." seeing her brothers watching her as well, she restarted her sentence, "Our mother, she's not well." Wispy and just a child woken in a cemetery from a nightmare, Hitomi's voice gave away much and more to Takeda, "Fujin tells us it looks grim if we can't stop it soon, but he's not sure since he's less familiar with the physiology of those from the Netherrealm." Leaving out the rest, the telepath could still read it in her mind, _Fujin believes that it's some kind of breakdown in her cells, but she's lived on Earthrealm for centuries and has never been ill like this before. There is another theory though..._. Glancing from her father back to her baby brother uncertainly, Hitomi didn't want to say it directly.

Zyanyo, on the contrary, had no such reservations. "I agree with Ko'atal, it's his fault that she's dying."

Seething and clearly on the verge of tears beneath the loathing he protected himself with, Hanzo felt just this once he could truly sympathize with the boy and the terror he must feel over the prospective loss of a loved one, so he could hardly blame the boy for all of the resentment he carried, as misplaced as most of it was. Evren was right of course, Zyanyo did have to blame someone for things, and unfortunately it had been easiest for the demonic cryomancer to lay the fault at the feet of his father's oldest and most hated foe. _Although how misplaced was this hate, really?_

 _Ko'atal_?! As in _her_ Ko'atal, the Emperor of Outworld who was perhaps best known as Kotal Kahn?! _What. The. Fuck!?_ Peering around her mom and at Jacqui while everyone else was still busy gawking between the hell-hole that was the Hasashi family and Takeda, the blonde wondered if maybe they would both be having to question their relationships the first chance they got. _Seriously, how big of a home-wrecker is Hitomi?!_ Hopefully whatever the Kahn had to do with this realm-and-decade spanning train-wreck of a soap opera, it had nothing to do with taking the little half-beastie. Obviously it would have made sense for Kotal to have a past given how ancient he was - it wasn't as if she was clean slate herself when they started out - but whatever had happened between them should have been history. He'd never brought it up before, so clearly it must not have mattered to him that much. Right?

"How does the Kahn know your mother?" Praying that her own mother would miss the possessively demanding tone in her voice - more so that Kung Jin would fail to catch the panic undulating through her vocal chords - Cage took a handful of steps closer to the female Shirai Ryu, more than prepared to pull out the bitchslap if she didn't care for the other woman's reply. Fuck it if this started some kind of war, Ko'atal was with the blonde now, not some confusing-ass splattering of races and species that made Mileena look normal.

A man of a thousand words and apparently with a memory better than an elephant, the discarded son answered Cassie's question, never once ceasing to glare at Hanzo. "Because, when this Shirai Ryu dog wasn't in the picture at all, she was once married to a better man." Had Haruka not been in his arms at that point, Takeda would have sprung up with more than some choice angry words at that name calling, however Scorpion retained his composure at the adolescent strike. Hitomi actually did hiss at her brother's offensive put-down.

 _Say what now?_ While Cassandra may have been in dire need of a seat at that most unwelcome newsflash, Jacqui's jaw dropped at the realization that the kunoichi was less of a ninja and more some kind of horrible boyfriend-stealer. Honestly there was some relief at hearing that Hasashi had moved on from Takeda, but if it came at the expense of Cassie and her happiness, she wanted no part of that joy. Takeda was a pretty great guy, but Cassie was her sister, and everyone knew that family was for life when boyfriends came and went like the passing of the seasons. Although on the bright side, this put any and all plans she had to try and be friendly to the other girl on ice...

Her father's daughter through and through, Cassie wasn't going to played for a punk like this, so instead of crumble she would play it the other way, no matter what the consequences were later. _I beat Shinnok for fuck's sake, this bitch should be nothing compared to an Elder God_. Clearing the floor in a few short strides, the blonde balled up her fist as she moved and decked Hitomi so hard in the face that her hand came away smeared with the half-demon's blood, her foe flat on her ass from the sheer unexpectedness of the blow. All around them the reactions were varied in nature: Sonya was very lost as to what in the world would bring that on at this point; Hanzo jumped to his feet to intervene if need be; Jacqui did not disapprove; Takeda handed the baby to Zyanyo so that he could help Hitomi back up to her feet; Zyanyo took the baby with mixed feelings upon the matter; and Kung Kin waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.

Reaching up her face to feel the damage that had been done, Hitomi was not pleased to see her fingertips come away stained crimson, "Anata kureijīburondo no meinu! Anata no mondai wa nanidesu ka?" Knocking his hand aside when he hastened to help the damsel up, Hitomi ignored Takeda completely and popped up to her feet on her own, not bothering just yet to do anything about the steady flow of scarlet leaking from her nose. There might have been some in the office that had no clue what was actually said, but they could gather from the tone that was used. "It's on now!"

 _Thank you Elder Gods_! Cassie almost sang out loud in her jubilation that the challenge had been accepted, "I hope you had a long and fulfilling life."

"Longer than yours will be." Hitomi took her stance and came at the blonde with a flurry of fiery fists lit by the graces and powers of hell, just as her father before her was capable of. _There were some perks to being the offspring of a demon and a_ _wraith_. Mindful of the audience in the arena, Cassie ducked back beneath a high kick that could have taken out an eye with the right kind of heel, countering with a well-timed uppercut to the abdominals. Loosing a small portion of her lunch on the floor, the Shirai Ryu was crafty enough to use that same puddle of puke to assist in speeding up her movements as she launched herself at the other woman, knocking the air out of her lungs as they came crashing through one of the (thankfully empty) display cases, landing on the ground. Mounted on top of Cassie, Hitomi had reached for one of the kunai strapped at her thigh only to brush against empty air and the memory of reluctantly handing her weapons over at the front gate. _God fucking dammit!_

Smug at her enemy's predicament, the blonde simply laughed at the brunette's misfortune as she flipped the pair of them around so that she was riding top, as was only natural. "Ohh," grinning ear-to-ear in the halo of victory, Cage smirked at Hitomi and adopted a mocking tone, "does that hurt? Want me to kiss it better? Well too fucking bad for you that I'm not the sharing type." Gloating far from finished (just like her father would have done in the same situation), Cassie missed the scheming behind the other girl's eyes as she pulled the apparent winner closer, hands yanking the empty holsters by the strap below her breasts. With only half a second more than the others to see what was about to happen, Cassie felt the crushing sensation of the other girl's lips on her own before she actually registered that the other girl was kissing her.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Wow so many reviews all a sudden! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! I'm not sure if it's just one "guest", two, or three, but all the same you have my full gratitude mystery person/people! To try and answer your reviews the best I can, I'm really glad to hear that the story is liked, and so far as the length, there is a part of me that wishes that they would be longer (strange as that may sound), but I opted to not force a pre-set time limit, so they end when I feel the moment is right. Unfortunately, that seems to be sooner than later. Sucky as it is, I'm no stranger to writing a fic that is generally overlooked, so no, that typically doesn't dissuade me from continuing. I have a good feeling that this will see a conclusion, although it's really tough to say at this point if I'm being Kotally honest. Yes, yes I just used that pun. Anyway, on a personal level I really do like Takeda and Jacqui as a pairing (although I really do love her with Erron Black too), but for the sake of mystery, I'm not going to give away their fate as a couple just yet. Yeah, the three of them are all in pretty jacked up situations, there's no denying that. Anyways - and mind this is my own personal opinion and shouldn't be taken as a part of the story - I really really have a problem with Sonya's general attitude towards Cassie. Maybe it's just how I see things, but that relationship is just really jacked and doomed for... well, you actually really nailed that one! If things continue, I doubt that it will be much longer before a bullet enters that family picture. Either way, thank you so so much for the reviews! They really encourage me to keep going and to strive to deliver an amazing story for you other fans!

And again for the record, Mileena is one of my all-time favorite MK characters. Just so you all know that any and all Mileena-bashing is the characters and not me. Also, I used google translate for the Japanese, but I believe that it equates to "you crazy blonde bitch" and "what's your problem?".


	11. Takeda Really Needs to be Alone

It was a dirty tactic, they all knew that without having to be professional ass-kickers, but it certainly worked in Hitomi's favor. Pressing into her enemy with everything she had, the Shirai Ryu knew even as she identified her foe's lip balm of choice to be cherry-flavored that her father would have more than just a few things to scold her about when he got the chance, and yet... As into boys as her brother was, the kunoichi was genuinely astonished to find that the feeling of the other girl's lips on her own was not quite as repulsive as she anticipated; the almost smothering sensation of Cassie's larger bust being forced into her own chest was pleasant yet left her mind in a bit of a dither. Unconsciously Hitomi's body began to act on its own accord, the muscles in her athletic legs sliding higher and higher around so that her right thigh was grinding up against Cassie...

 _Because this is comfortable_. Having succeeded in stealing a clean victory from Cage - but in doing so, Hasashi had made the outcome uncertain - it was over before any of the kombatants or spectators knew what was happening, which was a totally unfamiliar trend today. Any other time it might have concluded with both parents scolding their daughters with the promise of more to come later, but thankfully for them all there was a crowd and this meeting involved official business. Still though, both ladies were a bit groggy as they rejoined the others around Sonya's desk. One minute they were straddling the other, and the next thing either of them knew, Cassie was being lifted into the air and set aside the same way a lioness would pick her cub up by the scruff of the neck and carry it off. Not getting off that easily herself, Hitomi felt a firm grip on her shoulder, pulling her as far away from the others as she could get, and there the hand remained so that there would be no escape, nor any retaliation or attempted continuation. Hanzo, having seen more than enough of his daughter's _curiosity_ to last him a lifetime, would not put it past the child to do something regrettable. _Again._

Honestly he could have lived a long and satisfied life without seeing the cat-fight-turned-amateur-porn, but it seemed to work in that it shut Cage up, so for Kung Jin that was great on its own right. _'Bout time someone silenced the Sarge_. Watching in mild disinterest from the sidelines as a scowling Scorpion had seen enough and wrenched the two quarreling squirrels apart, the archer glanced back to where Takeda had fallen back from the spotlight, noting that the other male seemed to be trying to hide something. _It's a shame that there's really only one person in the room who could appreciate the girl-on-girl action,_ even as he mused mentally, the smug smirk was louder than a sudden thunder in silence, _isn't that right, Takeda?_

So very tempted to shout at Jin for the stunt he was pulling, the telepath was in no mood to draw unwanted attention to himself or his current situation, so he merely allowed the monk to go on, _I wonder if your master is ticked because Mama Blade allowed those_ _crazy-with-a-k kids work it out themselves, or_ _because Hitomi is coming dangerously close to saying that she screwed everyone in the room that isn't family and who's actually into that whole hetro thing? Well, maybe hetro isn't the right word for it..._ Unapologetic for simply stating the truth, the Shaolin was positive of two things when he saw the blind man's son lock his jaw: Takahashi certainly wasn't complaining about the nearly-lesbian experience between his peer and commanding officer; and two, the mind-reader had not liked what he had to think about the matter. _Then don't read my mind if you don't like the contents._

Crippled, aghast, and just glad that it didn't escalate between the pair before they went even further, Sonya was starting to regret letting that one slide for so long - out of everything she had ever seen in her life, Cassie kissing another girl was not something that should have been on that list. It almost made her miss the days when Kano was at large. Technically nothing would ever make her miss that horror-fest, but that wasn't the point she had been trying to make. "Sargent, compose yourself." She had almost been tempted to ask what Cass thought Johnny would say about the matter, but she knew Cage better than anyone should, so the General quickly thought better of it before opening her mouth.

Shocked beyond the point of concepts such as "broken" and "defeated", Jacqui could only gape at her sister and best friend in utter disbelief, wondering what in the hell was going through the other girl's mind at that moment - Briggs Knew Cage extremely intimately, and she knew when Cassie wasn't into it, and that girl didn't show any of her tattle-tale signs of revulsion. Like if she had been just randomly jumped by someone like Reptile, the blonde would have kicked him square in the boys and threw him off. If it had been someone that was at least attractive on paper, someone like Erron Black for example, Cass might have humored the initial contact, but if there was no spark, he'd be shoved back or at the very least would have a taste of her backhand. If in her battlesuit, the batons might have even come out to play, although that last one was a rare thing. _But this?_ It wasn't as if the lip-lock lingered on well past the point of comfortability, but it wasn't like the Sargent had rejected the motion either. _What would the Kahn think about this?!_

Still in the dark about the Sargent's reasoning and having absolutely no clue what imaginary slight she had done the blonde to deserve this bout, the female Shirai Ryu almost threw Takeda's hand away once more when he approached at Scorpion's beckon, yet thought better of it when her father's disapproving eye fell over her. "Let me go get you cleaned up." Personally he would have rather not gotten involved at this point, lest a rather awkward conversation arise in their absence from the rest of the group, but no matter what his body was thinking of doing, he did not dare disobey a direct order from the Grandmaster. As if on cue Jacqui bristled at his offer (her jealousy was kinda cute, but he knew just by looking at the dark-skinned beauty that it could get serious in a very bad way), although he could sense the confusion in his girlfriend, that after went went down with Cassie there was real doubt about if she had to worry too much about the past. It wasn't exactly a blessing, but it was the best he could hope for. "Hitomi can fill me in on the details on the way, so you guys can carry on without us." Really he just needed to find a private stall.

"Not yet," Cassie shook her head at the half-demon before the other girl could escape from having to answer for her sins, no longer caring much if her mother found out just how serious things looked like they were getting with Ko'atal. Poor Takeda's plight was ignored by everyone but Jin, who elbowed Zyanyo so that he was in on it as well. "Me and her need to straighten some shit out first." _Great, that was just fucking great_. That was the general vibe in the room at those words, no extra powers of telepathy needed. At that point in time, Cassie could really not give two fucks what anyone else had to say. Well maybe her mom, but the General seemed fairly interested (in her own way) to see where this was going, so blondie jr. wasn't too worried about Sonya putting her foot down just yet, although after the display five seconds ago, it was anyone's guess. "You're like what, twelve," Cassie mocked Hitomi's boyish b-cupped body, "when did you have time to get over Techno," seriously, it was a good nickname for him, "and blow it with Kotal Kahn?!"

"Is that what this was about?" Cringing at the mental picture of seeing the Emperor in that light but almost finding it funny enough to laugh about, Hitomi looked between her father and half-brother to see which of them wanted to take this one, figuring that they could have explained the situation in better detail so that there would be no more confusion. As Evren's husband and father to two of her children, Hanzo Hasashi should have had few enough qualms about bearing that burden, but then again she could also see how that might get uncomfortably awkward. "Zy?"

Rolling his bright blue orbs in complete and true apathy (although inside the Lin Kuei was roaring with laughter that Techno would soon be facing a rather great debate once they were out of the room, _if_ they were even allowed to leave), Zyanyo could really care less what his twin sister liked to eat in her free time, so long as she was happy and well cared for. Cut-off mid-story, all the vain cryomancer cared about at that junction was that no one had finished listening to his monologue. Juggling Haruka in his arms with equal skill and tenderness, the pout on his face only seemed to amuse the infant, who giggled joyously up at his older brother and tried to grab one of the many strands of silver and bead-work he donned. _What, it's suddenly my fault that I happen to have a great voice? Screw them too!_ "Fine, so you don't have to soil your precious hands and get yourself out of... Oh."

"The problems you start?" She offered with a frown, putting one hand on her hip.

Zyanyo shrugged in her direction, taking a low-hanging sapphire-like gem from the baby's mouth, "Whatever Hitomi-hime says. Anyways, as I would have said if some people had let me finish instead of brainstorming ideas for their first porno," he ignored the parental shudders of the mother and father in the room, "You'd all know that for whatever reason our mother left Kotal long before he became the Kahn." Stilling thinking her insane for what she called love, the Lin Kuei clearly would never understand how the succubus could have ever walked away from the man that would one day become an emperor, "Mother said since day one that it was true love, that she belonged to this one," one, quite obviously being the polite substitute for all the foul terms in existence that he wanted to use on his real step-father, "so she never gave the Kahn a second chance. She never gave anyone a chance after meeting him, unless you count-"

Knowing exactly where he was going with that one, Hitomi cut him off before he could bring up something they had both accidentally witnessed their mother doing when they still lived in Outworld with the future Emperor, back when she had served the Kahnum before the Empress had been deposed and the politics became truly dangerous. "Don't."

Less than thrilled by her interruption, Zyanyo shot back, "Don't tell me don't. If I want to say something, I will say it." Leering at his sister with a practiced and often victorious eye, the cryomancer challenged her to say something else, his blue eyes promising without blinking that he would reveal every speck of dirt he had on her since birth if she so much as said one more word. Gathering from her matching cocoa stare that she understood the message, Hitomi backed down by demurely inclining the head. Now all that left was the loud blonde one to shut up, but already she seemed rather stuck on his meaning. _Or maybe she's just slow_. "In other words, your precious Ko'atal was once married to Scorpion's wife, centuries ago when they served together in Shao Kahn's army. Even hundreds of years after splitting, he agreed to help her raise her kids." _Because that made complete and total sense._

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

To **KynthiaOlympia** , once again thank you very much for the review! Reviews really pump me up and make me work that much harder for my readers!

And for your viewing pleasure, nods to not only MK 2011, but to both one of Kano's intros and the first Zoolander as well. Hey, the second might still be forever away, but there are plans for it, so that totally makes my comment legit.


	12. Tomi

Dribbling down her chin in solid scarlet streaks and spilling over her saffron kimono to the newly cleaned cinnimon carpet below, Sonya had allowed the two young Shirai Ryu to go hit the shower, thinking that Cassandra or someone else (namely Zyanyo) might just try to find another reason to resume tensions; there was no way that the General could have known that they were once an item. Everyone else was aware of that fact, but it wasn't exactly like the woman gave herself the time to fraternize and/or subscribe to the latest issue of ' _Kombat, Drama, and Tears Weekly_ '. If such a rag did exist though, the blonde had no doubt in her mind that her ex would be their number one customer. Huh, on second thought maybe that was how Johnny managed to cover his expenses between film roles - he certainly had the flair and personality for it.

Johnny aside - oh, Elder Gods be good, how he was going to eat this cluster-fuck up! - the only real eventful thing that happened from the General's office to the nearest washroom was that Jacqui had momentarily stood between the other girl and the door, not saying anything with her mouth but communicating a very bleak possible future with her alluring chestnut eyes. _Seriously, with those eyes alone, it was no wonder Takeda had jumped into that one_. Nodding solemnly to gain her exit without another flashy production (doubtful that the same approach was likely to work twice in a row), the kunoichi had followed the shinobi in respectful silence out of the room, letting the calm stretch until they arrived in the bathroom. Unlike most public places, the base was unisex so there was really no point in splitting up as they entered the chipped and tiled room.

Propped up on the grainy gray granite counter-top with the lukewarm water running in the sink at her side, Hitomi held her head back against the dingy full-size mirror to cease the crimson leakage. As it was around noon, most of the soldiers were either drilling or else in the mess hall being fed their chum, so they were all alone in the spacious washroom/toilet, save for the grunt that was washing his hands in the sink on the other side of the strangely-dressed girl, orbs very clearly unraveling the bandages she wore as shorts. Buzz-cut brown and blue-eyed, she had to admit that he was kind of cute, but she just wasn't interested. Sensing that much as she paid more attention to the cubicles of showers in the middle of the chamber than him, he shrugged the rare female off and went on his way not long after, figuring that she was with the telepath in the blonde brat's squad.

"So..." Hitomi trailed off awkwardly once they were truly by themselves, having no idea what to say to Takeda now that they were face-to-face again after all that time. _Should I say that he looks good?_ That should just be obvious though. _Should I say something about his girlfriend?_ But what? _Good for you, she's super pretty? She seems nice?_ That last one might not have been strictly true for her given all that had transpired today, and after what happened with the blonde back there, he might get the wrong idea. "You..." _I still hate you for breaking my heart when my dad sent me away. I hate you, but I just can't seem to stay mad at you._ "You've done well for yourself."

He _had_ done rather well for himself, largely thanks to hard work and the combined tutelage of their fathers, but he knew that that wasn't what she meant without having to cheat and use his powers on her. Strangely he had always been fairly talented at reading her, long before he knew that he had that kind of ability. "Yeah, I guess I have." What he did read in Tomi's mind was exactly what he would have expected to hear from her back in Cassie's office, not now that he had to play nurse for the girl. "What about you? Evren-san told me that you almost didn't come back to be there with her when Haruka was born, and I overheard her talking to Hanzo about your lack of letters home. It wasn't her decision to have you leave home." They still hadn't spoken of what brought the Hasashi family to seek not only help from the Special Forces but the Lin Kuei as well.

Twisting the tap off as to not waste the water, Takeda balled the next sheet up into a crumpled wad and held it out for the girl, hand lingering in place after she took it and applied it to her beak. Whatever all she might have been up to divulging, he didn't anticipate getting a real answer out of the kunoichi when it concerned that particular topic, so he attempted to strike up a mutual tone that would hopefully carry them through this. "Why did you unzip your mask before we entered the General's office?"

Pressing the damp tissue paper to her injury while he examined her skull and elbows for any serious damage, Hasashi replied evenly, "I thought that it would be considered rude to hide my face at that time. If I learned nothing else from my parents, the one thing they did manage to teach me was that there is always a time and a place for everything." Growing still for a moment, she gazed down at her knees, pulling at the badly stitched repairs she had made to the once lush material, "But you're right." As the only person that had acted sensibly when Hanzo had found out about the two of them, the girl knew that it wasn't her mother's doing that kept her away from the temple and her family, and truthfully it was barely even her father's final verdict, "She was the only person that really supported us." There was a lingering sentiment in the way the ninja said that last, but he didn't care to dwell on that. "Honestly, I thought that you'd be there."

Knowing that she was referring to the birth of baby Haruka, Takeda thought about telling her that he wanted to be, but he was training with his father at that time, and Kenshi advised him that seeing his ex when she was caught in the euphoria of a new baby would only end in disaster. The boy lost the precise words over time, but his dad's forewarning basically amounted to being that they would be lucky if it only ended in tears. "My dad was ruthless in his training." What Takahashi failed to mention was that Kenshi had only voiced his doubts about a visit after inquiring into how much she meant to his son.

"Oh." Soft, it was clear that she really didn't believe that it was that simple. "Well I guess it was worth it ultimately, and you're closer to my brother than I am, so really who missed out on what?" _Who missed out on what?_ Now that was the question, wasn't it?

One hand still on her shoulder as he finished his examination, he noticed how easy it would have been to just slip his fingers across her chest and into the loose folds that covered her breasts. Just two movements, maybe three, and he could have been touching her the way they used to after supper, once or twice before morning drills, or when they bribed some of the others to cover for them when they ought to have been doing their chores; a distant part of the back of his mind wondered if he still had what it took to make her quiver and moan... _No!_ He was with Jacqui now! It was Jacqui he fondled and kissed, not... _the daughter... the forbidden..._ Mind losing ration in a hurry as he thought back to how it felt to sneak around behind everyone's back, Takeda reminded himself that almost everyone back in that room would be expecting him to do this, even his girlfriend. _Ok, so maybe he hadn't been in a great rush to tell her about Hitomi, but she still should have had more faith in him than to cheat just like that!_

Nigh penetrable by even the bluntest of blades at that point, Hitomi did what she could to cast away the tension by remembering Jacqui's non-verbal threat at that point, trying to not think about just how close he was to her in that moment, or how far away everyone else was. _Hmm, it was almost like old times_. "I'm not sure I thanked you for back there." In someway the girl knew that she was flirting, but the twin tried to justify her actions by focusing on bring up the fact that he did technically have a girlfriend. If he wanted to be a dog and disregard that fact, that was his decision. "In a fair fight I have faith in my abilities, but under these circumstances I'm really glad that your girlfriend didn't get involved. She looks like she can pack a mean punch." That's right, Tomi didn't even know that that Jacqui grew up on a farm. "I mean I was lucky that it was just the one because that tactic worked, but can you imagine me trying to make out with the both of them at once?"

 _As a matter of fact_... Feeling himself liking that idea just a tad too much, the mind-reader wanted to opt out for one of the shy-guy stalls so that he could work it out for himself, but it was becoming increasingly unlikely that Hitomi wouldn't catch on to the uncomfortable swelling he felt burning a hole through his battlesuit. _As if she was one to judge_ , going from the sly sidelong glance flashed in Cassie's direction when he had escorted her from the room. If anything, the younger of the two was probably still lasciviously eager, which only made it that much harder for him to think straight. Honestly, what sane guy would pass up very willing copulation when it was right there for the the taking?! _No, dammit, what about Jacqui?_ What about Jacqui, it wasn't like she was exactly standing in his corner, full of conviction and having his back that he would do the right thing and not give in to his ex. "I really should-"

"No!" Scandalized and smirking as dirty as her twin brother once dawning sunk in, the kunoichi didn't need any of her ninja skill to grab the telepath's wrist before he could even think about retreating, "What, my little diversion with Cage didn't get you all hot and bothered, did it? You of all people should know how much I..." Hitomi caught herself, about to say how much he knew she loved playing 'hide the dragon', but she was trying to resist the urge to pull him close and drag his hands up and down her every aching inch, "That was just a means to ending the fight without taking a decisive loss." She said that, although at the same time she really was wondering what it would have been like if things had been allowed to evolve naturally between her and Cassie. "That was the only time you'll see me kissing another girl, even if you asked really nice."

Ever the jokester, Takeda couldn't pass up the chance to test those convictions, "Not even if it was my birthday and I was dying?"

The answer came swiftly and unconditionally, without a second thought, "Nope, not even then." Cracking a smile at the hurt look he gave her, the young woman chuckled without a single thought back to the blonde, or any other female for that matter, "Ok, well maybe if you were really dying and I had a doctor or three there to back your story up." Glad to be reliving some of the better times of their friendship, the grin widened as her dark eyes fell accidentally-on-purpose to all the proof she needed; mocking as it was nervous, a laugh escaped her lips before she could help it, "I guess you really are a pervert." She waved him on before he could object or throw her under the bus with him, "Geez, you're as easy to work up as ever." Grabbing her wrist in return - _a reflex, perhaps?_ \- there was no stopping the next question to escape from her lips, "But I wonder, are you still as energetic?" Arching an inquiring and challenging brow, Hasashi leaned closer so that there was almost no space between the both of them, stopping suddenly just before their skin could graze, "I'm sorry, I know that we shouldn't, but I really..."

Holding the finger of his free hand to her lips, Takeda silenced her, not needing to hear another word to know just how she was feeling. "Just shut up a minute, Hitomi." Hanzo may have been lurking around out there, and Jacqui... Jacqui... Jacqui was...

Lids half closed and growing dizzy from their proximity, the kunoichi shook her head as minutely as possible so that any viable skin contact was delayed that much longer, voice faltering to a low pur, "Why don't you ever call me Tomi anymore?"

Taking the bloodied paper towel from her without warning, Takeda whispered the long-forgotten (so far as she knew) nickname, "Tomi, shut the hell up for a minute."

* * *

 **Author's Notes** :

Thanks again for the review **KynthiaOlympia**! I'm really glad to hear that this story is doing well, and as an added perk it's almost at a thousand views to boot! Pretty darn good for me, getting so many hits in just a about a week! Seriously not to sound whiny or anything, but somehow my stories are all overlooked. But just this once, I don't mean that as an invite to read the others. Weird for me. Oh well.

Holy shit, I just realized a plot hole! Inaccuracy, whichever! Hitomi wears a top that is part jacket part mask, so she shouldn't have been able to just smooch Cassie like that! Dammit, just the kind of thing I try to avoid! Well no one's perfect, and on the bright side I thought up a way to explain that without having to rewrite that scene! At some point before entering Sonya's office, she must have just unzipped the fabric enough so that it was like a stiff, jutting, overly long turtleneck. Yep, that's what happened between chapters!

So what do you guys think? Will Takeda and Hitomi hook up again? Did they at the end of the chapter? Should they in the immediate or unforeseeable future, if at all? I already have a pretty good idea of where I want that relationship to go, but nothing is set in stone and I'd really like to hear reader input, even if it's anonymous.


	13. Sexy Shadows

**About a month ago, after the meeting with the Lin Kuei...**

Glistening like the twinkling stars caught in the velveteen midnight sky above, the translucent sweat beading upon Evren's dampened brow was of great concern to the two men watching the medic work, their worried stillness only amplifying as the trained professional checked upon her pulse and took her temperature with a sigh. What did he know of seeing to the health of hellions from the Netherrealm? Still though, the grayed old man knew it was his job as a doctor and responsibility as a Lin Kuei to do what he could for the female, wife of a Shirai Ryu dog or not. Kuai Liang may have reformed the Lin Kuei, but that did not mean that old hatreds were so easily forgotten.

"I cannot lie to you Grandmaster," his clipped tone made it very apparent which grandmaster he meant, "I have not studied many _patients_ ," the good doctor may have said patients, but Hanzo heard the word 'corpses' as if the elder had the gumption to say it to his face, "from other realms, so my expertise is quite limited. I suspect that that is part of the reason why Zyanyo has never once needed to step foot into my office." Among the other high-ranking and proven Lin Kuei, it was known that Zyanyo was the Grandmaster's son, and among even the newest of them, they had all known to respect his mother. In some ways, Evren could have been considered an honorary Lin Kuei. Perhaps it was that title and the peace treaty between clans that kept the old man somewhat civil as he went on, "Frankly I marvel at how her kind was even able to reproduce once, let alone multiple times."

Sensing some sort of dig with the mention of Zyanyo, Hanzo ignored that in light of a more pressing topic - reproduction. Not that it was any business of the Lin Kuei, but the hellion's husband knew exactly who the succubus was and what she had been created for: A true monster, Quan Chi had intended for his own child to become an incubator of some kind, but when Mika discovered this, Evren's mother acted maternal for the first time and fled from the Neatherrealm to have the baby in a secret location. Actions proving to be a double-edged sword, the warlock had been unable to perform every necessary step to ensure that his nefarious plan had been a success, and so the necromancer's daughter suffered more miscarriages than births, and yet she could not be labeled a failed experiment as the succubus would go on to have four offspring of her own, two of each gender. In fact, Hanzo knew for certain (partially from personal hands-on-experience) how trying the stages after conception were for the demoness, just as he knew that of all the times she had lost a child, there had been only once that she could not fault nature and her father.

Oh yes, Hanzo knew much of her heartache as he shared in it, because Haruka had not been the first time they had gotten pregnant since rekindling their romance; but no, he refused to believe that their son was somehow to blame for unexpectedly lengthening their stay at the Lin Kuei temple. "What of it?" The former wraith glared at the doctor, just daring him to put bluntly what he thought to imply. "Are you insinuating that this is my fault, our son's fault?"

Standing up straight and replacing the cloth they had thought to put on her forehead earlier, the doctor was actually much taller than he appeared when sitting down, but size had never been enough of a factor to make Hanzo blink, "I'm saying that I don't know, but you do have to admit that of her spawn," Sub-Zero frowned at that remark but held his tongue, "this is the one to make her ill. Maybe she's just too old to be procreating, or maybe now that you're relatively human the genes just don't fit right." As Haruka was already well past the year mark and seemed to be healthy, that was an unlikely hypothesis as it would have affected him too. "Could be that her kind just aren't meant to stay in Earthrealm this long. It could be anything, even just a shattered immune system or new virus from all this inter-realm relation business the Special Forces are so keen to set up and police."

Sending the doctor away with a nod when it became apparent that that was the end of the old man's medical expertise, Sub-Zero shut the door to be sure that they were alone before speaking, "Ming has little love for demons after Quan Chi slaughtered his wife and two daughters, but he will do what he can for her. His honor demands it."

Flaring up at being patronized like a misbehaving child, Hanzo glared at his old foe and new ally as if this predicament could be solved in such a manner; he need only gaze down to remember himself, why he was there now, what he stood to loose. _For better or worse, I swear that I will follow you_. It seemed so foolish now that they should make such a promise in their vows, and yet they did. Pacing the confines of the room twice before determining that he was calm enough, Hanzo froze at the side of the rough-hewn wooden bed his wife had been put in, hovering over her as he placed one hand upon the bare shoulder of the slumbering succubus, "I do not care about Lin Kuei honor - I have to know what I can do for her." It went without saying that he had lost one wife before, "I'm not prepared to lose her too."

No fool, Kuai Liang only had to look at the couple to see the love been husband and wife; seated for tea of a casual nature or for business, it was there in their eyes, in their smiles when they just barely bumped elbows; strolling along empty training grounds in the moonlight, it did not ruin their night knowing that a rash assault or scoffing son lurked in every unfamiliar shadow, because they were as in love as any new couple. Even now in an unconscious state, the demoness seemed to glow just a little bit brighter whenever her spouse was near. What the cryomancer wouldn't have given for half of that... But no, the first thing Kuai Liang had had done after Bo' Rai Cho had talked him down was to swear that he would never again harm the innocent, and after what happened to Evren, the snowman took that step further and made himself vow that he would never again seek out friendly companionship. For the most part, he upheld that promise. Hanzo deserved some happiness after all the suffering he had endured, and the ice man deserved no such thing for the misery he brought...

As a matter of fact, the Lin Kuei had been abstaining from such temptation as social interaction by meditating at his balcony when he overheard the tail-end of a conversation that wound up being between Hanzo and Evren before her fall; his first thought at the pair of voices was that Zyanyo had snuck out of his room again and was attempting to woo one of the unlettered rookies. Not something he would have ever considered to be a healthy pastime, the biological father of the young cryomancer had come to accept the behavior after a handful of letters from home that explained that succubi were that much stronger and at their prime when they loved. For the mother it seemed as simple as emotional ties, but the son seemed better fueled by physical encounters. But that was getting a tad bit off the point. The nitty-gritty boiled down to it being that the second voice belonged to a woman, so Sub-Zero knew straight away that it was not his son creeping around the chilly snows so late at night.

"...I don't want to hear you using your species as an excuse again." Muffled by a sharp breeze that cut all else prior away, the first voice (a deeper murmur that really belonged to Hanzo) chided his companion as they strolled at a leisurely pace despite the weather, however there was an obvious lacking in conviction behind his words.

It was impossible at that angle to make out any details in the seeping darkness, but if the Grandmaster had had to guess, he would have said that the second (Evren) was smirking at the first speaker. Sub-Zero could see by the twin silhouettes as they passed below the moon across the field that hands were slinking lower and lower down waists, although the action appeared to be over the skin. For the moment. "Fine, if you want to play it that way, when Haru's old enough to start asking questions about the noises he hears coming from mommy and daddy's room, I won't be bothered to explain nicely that mommy is a kind of person that needs a very special diet to survive, or even something generic like we need our own separate play time. I'll skip the PG simple stuff and go right to the traumatizing truth."

Pausing around the end of the drilling grounds where all the equipment was stored, it looked for a minute as if that remark had soured the mood, but just as Sub-Zero had been about to retire and leave the Hasashi family to their business, the larger of the two figures took the face of the smaller lovingly in his hands and kissed it, sweet and slow before answering with his rebuttal, "No, you should just listen to your husband when he tells you that he doesn't need a reason why he wants to take you for a walk."

Returning the embrace with a kind of slow-burning fervor, Evren nestled her head against Hanzo's chest after they broke apart for air, "I grow weary of should. We _should_ be in our room, resting for the farewell feast tomorrow morning," there was a kind of danger in her voice at that suggestion, but it seemed to Kuai Liang that it was more the kind that ended up in leather with a whip and possibly a gag, "and yet here we are." Turning her head away before he could kiss her again, the demoness began to cough so loudly that her lungs could be heard ringing down at the base of the mountain, her hand flying up to her mouth for an extended period before she forced herself to appear collected. It was a charade that fooled no one. "...Don't mind that, I just..." Swaying in place, they never found out what she 'just', because the next thing either of them knew, the demoness had crumpled and fell against her husband.

"Hanzo," back in the sickroom at present, Kuai Liang reached out for the other man, "she won't die. In all my years I have never before met a woman as strong or as determined as your Hasashi Evren." Scorpion clearly was not in need of a history lesson, yet he was about to get one all the same, "The Neatherrealm is no easy place to escape, we both know this, but she did it anyways for the sake of her children, knowing full well what it would mean. Spending every single day surrounded by this temptation or that, Evren did only what was necessary for the survival of her family, only dreaming that it would lead back to you. Twenty years she waited for you, filled with fear of the day you would meet, but still she arranged it. Fifteen, twenty years is a long time for mortals like us, but for her it was nothing - what must have killed her was the centuries it took for the two of you to meet."

* * *

 **A/N:**

First things first, major major props to guest for bringing something important to my attention, thus inspiring further character/chapter/story development!

And now to address the reviews in the order in which they were received!

I really really want to thank **KynthiaOlympia** for so many consecutive reviews, and for just basically giving me an opinion! Without that it's kinda like shooting in the dark on a blindfolded horse - I try to remain impartial, but really I'm still kind of biased and just see the story and it's characters in single-slot tunnel vision, so its important to have other lights shined on the situation.

And for guest, to elaborate upon my initial note and answer your review, I thought that there were two of you (one I noticed was uppercased while the other was lower) but I didn't want to be overly optimistic about it. Thank you so so much for the reviews! I'm really glad to see/hear that you like the story too! Really great points right there! Honestly - and I don't even know how it happened - I didn't really think about the kinds of powers that the kids had inherited from their mother. The fathers yes, but mom? Not so much. Hmm, part of me wants to just rush in with a quick-fix to that, but I think that I'm going to at least try to resist that urge for the time being. True, I did start to address that point in the chapter itself, but I'm not calling that a huge leap like what I had originally thought up at reading your review. Anyways, I really want to thank you, because if you hadn't brought that to my attention, it not only would have been a glaring hole but it also wouldn't have encouraged a number of ideas I now have floating in my mind! I really do owe you a lot! Getting back to the part about quick-fixes, I will say now that I think that I might (so please do take this statement with a grain of salt until further notice) have it so that the twins (and mom) have the famed sex-drives of succubi/incubi once their interests have been kindled. I'm really not sure at this point though where I'll go with any of that though... Concerning Jacqui, I'm pretty even with the pairings I've encountered for her so far - depending on my mood, I like her equally with Takeda, Erron, and Cassie, but that's all personal opinion. Man I love her "testi-kill"! Pop-goes is ok, but far from my favorite move. Anyways, yeah, I'd imagine in cannon Cassie would jack up any fool that messed with Jacqui, and vice-versa. And again, thank you!

Wow, I retire for the night with under 1000 views to wake up to over 1100! And before I turn in for the night, over 1200! Now that is just the bee's knees! Yes, yes I did just say that, lol. Thank you all so much, readers and reviews alike! And for the record, I'm like half-asleep right now, so like most of the chapter was written in that kind of a state. In other words, please pardon any typos and the like. Good night! If you need me or have questions about something that I said or put in the chapter, no matter how small it may seem, review or PM me, and I'll try to get back to you PDQ.


	14. SF - Grocery Shoppers Extraordinaire

**Meanwhile, back in the Batcave - Er, the General's office...**

Commanding on an almost cruel level and every inch the professional soldier Cassie remembered from her earliest childhood memories of her mother, Sonya's trailing blonde braid swung at her back as she stood front and center, formally introducing Scorpion so that he could explain the situation that brought him to the Special Forces when by all rights he ought to have been able to handle it himself. Unless of course the reputation of the Shirai Ryu had been that greatly exaggerated. It wouldn't be the first time that a fellow kombatant had inflated his ego and self-importance (sadly that wasn't even counting Johnny), and the General knew that it wouldn't be the last.

Clearing her throat to silence the low murmur of the distracted crowd, the General dipped her head in his direction when addressing the man, pleased to see that all of the horseplay had ceased by the mere reminder of her presence, "Grandmaster Hasashi has already filled me in on the details and we've already worked out most of the kinks, but we have both deemed it prudent that you are properly prepared for this mission." Had Hanzo not been so insistent on doing it this way, Sonya would have just had them all read the report before reporting for duty, but he asserted that they would be more invested if they could hear the stakes directly, so here they were. "Hanzo."

Taking his cue form the blonde, the shinobi moved with a calculating precision to stand where the General had been just instants before reclaiming her seat to attend to a stack of forms, eyes narrowed for a split-second as Zyanyo shifted his bouncing baby brother in his arms in order to whisper something in Kung Jin's ear. _No doubt it was a matter of life or death_. In the few brief intervals of time that Haruka spent being transitioned from one position to another, Hanzo had time to reflect that whatever resentment the boy carried for the former wraith, the infant would be in no danger from the junior cryomancer. Scolding himself for allowing the situation with his wife to spill over to such a degree, the father forced himself to relax within his own skin the moment when potential accident had been safely averted.

If only the mortal man could honestly say that he had faith that Evren would be spared from whatever malicious fate had chosen for her its target. Speaking evenly as if his mind had not just been hanging in every parent's worst slo-motion fear, Scorpion gazed around the room at all of the faces watching him, waiting for him to speak. It seemed strange to him that Takeda should not be in the room for this news, that the mind-reader heard it from another source, even if that source was his own daughter. Naturally she had been tasked with informing him of this development, but he still found it strange. "Relations between the Shirai Ryu and Special Forces have been slowly recovering since the night Cassandra saved Earthrealm from Shinnok-"

Definitely her father's daughter, as well as being on the road to recovery from that shocking chain of events prior to this, Cassie whooped and fist pumped the air so vigorously that for a moment it looked like she was using a shakeweight, or worse. "Yeah, that's me! I did that!" Arms crossed firmly over her chest like she was afraid the matching set of bulbs would try to run away on her, Sonya shook her head in disapproval at her daughter's antics, fixing her with one of those 'you are so dead later' looks. Cassie sulked and pouted at the General as she fell back, deflated and defeated, "Well I did."

Ignoring the interruption like a champ, Scorpion continued, "And this mission will greatly further that improvement if all goes according to plan. As Hitomi said previously, my wife has fallen ill this past month and no one can tell us what ails her. Fujin thinks that there may be a remedy for her," Hanzo took great care to neglect mentioning how the intricate brew was not a guarantee that she would recover, largely for his own benefit, "but it is a rare potion that must be made delicately with the right ingredients. That is where the Lin Kuei will offer their greatest support." Whatever Zyanyo lacked in a friendly demeanor, he more than made up for in his medicinal skills. Plus being that it was his mother's life on the line, there was that much more incentive for the boy to do it right the first time. "What I need from the Special Forces is someone that can obtain the rest of the ingredients we require."

Ordinarily Kung Jin might have scoffed and mumbled something under his breath along the lines of ' _and whose fault is that?_ ', but with a woman's life on the line, now was not the time to bring up who did what to erode that trust and mutual understanding in the first place. _Short lived as it was, it was Scorpion's pretty little stunt that enabled D'Vorah to free Quan Chi so that he could work his magic on the amulet_. But no, it would just be petty to remind Cassie and the General that Hanzo here had been indirectly linked to the near-loss of a father and... _Hm, on that note, what was the deal with Cage Sr. and the General?_ Anyways, the archer saw a much larger cause of concern in that plan. "Why should we have to do your grocery shopping?"

"Insensitive much?" Specialist Briggs was more than used to hearing the monk run his mouth about her own family issues - even to this day it was a topic he seemed fond of rehashing - but at least in her situation death was well in the past, not looming overhead by a humble thread. Yet on that same token, she could not say that she disagreed. Admittedly it was a fairly rare occurrence when they actually did agree on something, but it was not nearly as unheard of as when Jin and Cassie were on the same page, "I wouldn't have put it like that, but Kung Jin's right - why can't the Shirai Ryu take care of this themselves?"

A good question, and one that the Grandmaster had been anticipating. "Because a number of the ingredients that we require lay within certain parts of Outworld, and the current emperor does not look favorably upon Shirai Ryu activity in his lands. As such the Shirai Ryu and a number of Lin Kuei will be responsible for obtaining the necessary materials from other realms."

Prying one of his many necklaces from his baby brother for the umpteenth time, Zyanyo spoke up, giving the two adults in the room a cold and defiant shoulder as he did so, "In other words, Ko'atal doesn't want to help the man that my mother left him for." Had Hitomi been there in the office at that point, he knew that his twin would have interjected that their mother left the Kahn long before Hanzo was even born, adding that she had never willingly betrayed him once they met. He would have fired back that the whole scene they once stumbled upon would beg to differ, however she was not there. "Thankfully," as ever the cryomancer was quick to defend the man that raised him for the first several years of his life, "he doesn't want to see my mom dead either, so he has no problem helping us in this endeavor."

* * *

 **A/N** :

 **KnythiaOlympia** , I really do want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the reviews, opinions, and advice you've given! It really does help! For the rest of the readers and reviewers, I want to address a few points you brought up in your review, if you don't mind terribly. To clear up comments I made about pairings of Jacqui, I agree that Cass and Jacqui are more of sisters than lovers, I just personally enjoy the types of stories were lines are blurred and relationships are seen in a different light (on a personal level, I enjoy the whole alternate universe vibe and string theory). As much as I like that idea, they're more of a smut/crack pairing that I like, but in a world of what I want to be cannon, I root for Jacqui with either Takeda or Erron, I just can't decide which. And without a pinch of hesitation, I can promise that Kotal with make an actual appearance in the story down the line. As will a certain mercenary...

Guest address number one (in ascending order and not newest to oldest apparently), Jax killing Takeda would be the absolute worst! As for the pairing ideas you suggested (I'm not about to willingly and bluntly just give up who's going to be with who in the end), those aren't half bad! OK, so maybe I will give up one since I'm not sure if/how it will factor into my story, and that's Johnny and Sonya. Personally I have some beef with the General, but I really love Jonya, so I'll ignore it for his sake. In other words, Jonya is/will be an official pairing in the story. Maybe I might play with them a bit as separate couplings, but their road will end in the same place. And it's Zyanyo, but that's a pretty strange name, so I won't fault you for a harmless typo. ^^ Actually his name is a deviation of a code name I used in an older, different story about Scorpion and Evren.

Second Guest, again my lips shall remain sealed on the future pairings of the characters (minus Jonya), but I will say again that they're some interesting ideas. I also have to say that I really do like your line of reasoning for these pairings, as well as admire the thought you put into this! Very impressive! But seriously, on a semi-related note, how great were those intros?! Those team names are pretty great - if I had been drinking something when I read Team Big Mouth, I think it would have promptly shot straight up my nose.

Again, just a huge round of applause for the three reviews and all the great assistance you guys are giving me! And yes, that lame joke that probably fell flat on it's ass at the very start of the chapter was intentional. It's a shorter chapter than what I've been giving you guys lately, but I really don't know what else I could possibly add.


	15. Royal Privileges, (A-Cut)

Ambling back to the General's office in their own sweet time, Takeda was in such a state of shock that it was up to the directionally challenged kunoichi to drag her horror-struck superior back to the others, if she could actually find the right room after taking countless wrong turns. _At this rate we may as well have just stayed in the showers_ , she thought moodily to herself as they passed the same unfamiliar office for a third time. _Of all the times in the world for him to become as unresponsive as a training dummy, why did this have to be one of them_? Honestly, the female was rather tempted to find a way to snap him out of it, but her best method was one that many would not appreciate, so she opted to delay it just a little bit longer in the hopes that he would come back around on his own soon.

As infinitely wise as her father was in the art of war, Hitomi had to doubt the prudence of the Grandmaster sending her to deliver the news in person; the telepath was going to hear the full extent of what happened either way, so why had she been chosen to play the messenger? Could it have been that her father wanted to punish her further for her sins? His letters said that he wanted her to return home so that they could move on, but was Scorpion somehow using this situation with her mother to evaluate how effective his sentence had been? Logic told the young woman that the Grandmaster wouldn't be so cruel as that, but being so close to Takeda again was really screwing with her head.

 _How is it that some boy can have so much sway over me_?! At least now the Shirai Ryu could begin to understand what it was her mother had felt all of these years for her father... Her mother, that made her think... Evren had been very maternal to Takeda ever since they met, so in many ways she was like a parent to him too. Perhaps that was her father's motivation behind the order to break the news to Takeda - Hanzo just wanted his surrogate son to hear it from a peer that could better understand his pain. Still though, it wasn't as if he himself was incapable of softening the blow.

"She'll pull through," stopping so suddenly that he stumbled into her, Hitomi barely noticed as her mother's ill visage swam before her dark brown eyes, the dim candles burning by her bedside leeching the gold from her Rapunzelian locks, "mom's a fighter, and she survived worse than this for her family." Once more the twin's mind shot back to a time nearly fifteen years ago when the three of them lived in Outworld with Ko'atal, when Mileena was the toothy and tyrannical empress their mother was ordered to protect. "I still think that the cryomancer and our grandfather was the worst that happened to her, but Mileena was almost just as bad in my mind." Although really the matter was up for debate...

 **Ko'atal's Private Residence in Z'Unkahrah, About Fifteen Years Ago...**

Jumping across all the oddly colored stones that patterned the floor of the main audience chamber, the twins were pretending that the darker tiles were rivers of molten lava while the lighter bricks were ice that froze you solid. Like most of their games there was little to no objective (at least none that were apparent to their childish sensibilities), yet the rules were numerous enough. Land on a light shingle and you had to freeze in the funniest pose that you could for five minutes, unless you were either touching another player or sharing a square, and then you both had to hold your position for eight. If there was enough players in the game, that got rather fun as they added that in those eight minutes you all had to share a truth, and if there was time you would just keep going. However, if you come to berth on a "hot spot", you'd have to go back: originally just three spaces, the distance you have to return varied, depending on how close you were to the other side of the room. Since the ground was covered in a bleaker hue, that meant that the go-backs were more likely to happen, which meant that there was no multi-player penalty.

As their mom and dad were often both gone away to serve the Kahnum, Hitomi and Zyanyo were frequently left in the care one of the other available members of Mileena's guard, Ko'atal's father Kotal K'etz, or oftentimes their older sister Emren, and once or twice even her father when he was in Outworld and had the time. Obviously they would have preferred their parents, but they adored when their half-sister would babysit, and in their own ways the twosome even liked some of the guards. Kotal K'etz was a nice enough guy, but he was always so strict and distant, going on and on about etiquette and rules and just everything that kids didn't want to hear.

"What did we say about going invisible?!" Only just coming into their own powers, the twins would fervently practice whenever they played games like these, but neither of them were particularly fond of the grown-ups 'cheating', especially Zyanyo. "It's not fair Reptile!" Tomi liked the lizard man and felt bad for him for being the last of his kind, but the stench and scales and slobber repulsed the boy. "We can't tell if you're cheating when we can't see you!" Looking at his sister to play the living (yet only mildly scorching) lava, he nodded gravely, "Give him the penalty shot."

Hesitantly, she gazed between her brother and their supervision. On one hand it was the agreed upon rules that cheating sent you all the way back to the beginning, but on the other, after discovering her fire powers and having to be the one to send everyone back just a little bit blacker, she was less keen to follow the letter of their law. The girl simply loathed having to risk hurting them just to learn to control her abilities, even after their regular assurances that they were fine; she wasn't blind, she could see the singed tatters her hellfire left. Thinking of what her mother would say, the young pyromancer frowned apologetically at Reptile, taking a deep breath and concentrating with all her might on just lighting her index to tap his shoulder.

Tighter than any safe had the right to be, Hitomi shut her eyes and reached out for the green kombatant, only opening them again after she made contact; eliciting a startled shriek from the lizard and a spleen-busting chortle from her brother, the tender child was dismayed to realize that she had accidentally set his entire shoulder pad aflame. "Oh no, not again!" Upset by her brother's laughter more than anything else, she ran off in tears, darting out of the room before Reptile could accomplish both tasks of dealing with the fire and stopping her.

As one of the adults that seemed to draw the job most repeatedly, the Saurian saw the duty as his opportunity to prepare for the day he would hear the growls of hatchlings once more. Considering the fact that his raptor race was deadly from birth, there was little that the twins could dish out that he would not force himself to endure and overcome. Their parents and the Empress herself, now that was a much different story...

"Go get your s-s-sis-s-ter!" Holding the smoking leather in his claws, the mature one in the room finished swatting out the smoldering steel, "I s-shall be waiting outside of the s-s-second audience chamber to head her off before sh-she s-stumbles across-s-s the Empress-s-s." In a rare turn of events, Mileena had come to this place she considered to be a dusty wasteland to pay one of her 'favorite' guards a personal visit, and they were all on high-alert that the Kahnum not be interrupted for anything, or by anyone least they loose their head for it. The kids never would have understood, so it was up to him to prevent them from even learning that their mom was the reason for today being as tense as it was. "Now!"

Sending Zyanyo out to look for Hitomi may not have been the wisest decision in hindsight, but since the two women were supposed to be in the more intimate second chamber, so long as he beat the children there, there should be little problem. That was what Reptile thought to himself as he raced to guard the appropriate door and stand sentry just in case the kids somehow got past the monitors in the hall... that was strangely empty and quiet...

* * *

 **A/N** :

 **KnythiaOlympia** , **guest** , and **Spellweaver10** , thanks a million for the reviews! I really, really appreciate them! Now since I can't reply to anonymous reviews in the review section, I'll do just that here, but first I shall say publicly in response to Spellweaver10's review that the teasing of what Zyan and Tomi saw shall be revealed. Maybe in this chapter (I wrote this address before actually stating the chapter), or maybe it'll be within the foreseeable future, but whenever it comes out, I do promise that that little incident will have a payoff. And now to answer guest's questions/comments! Yes, that is definitely the overwhelming consensus, but it really means a lot to me to hear the words that you respect that I'm the author and that this is my story at the end of the day. On a personal note, I'm not sure which of the x-rays is my favorite, but that one is certainly right up there vying for my top spot. As for what is perhaps the biggest point of all in your review, I think I may have played that one a tad too subtle. The first time you see Hanzo, Evren, and Kuai Liang talking, Scorpion says he has an idea to help bring their clans and family closer together (chapter 9), and Evren says that if they want to pull that off, it will require a "team effort". In the previous chapter, Kung Jin recalls the night that Scorpion "killed" Quan Chi (I only use quotation marks there because I firmly believe that the necromancer didn't die at that time). Given that Kenshi and Johnny and Sonya all plead with Hanzo to not do it, some of the things they said made me think that the next day that SF and Shirai Ryu alliances became rather shaky at best - even if the three could understand and find it in themselves to pardon, that doesn't mean that the other soldiers and/or their family could. Maybe that's reaching, but I can see that as a possible outcome. So in other words, this mission will not only encourage the mending of broken bridges, but I imagine that there were other perks for SF, such as aid, recovery, or even just manpower. I'm not really that familiar with how the military works if truth be told, but that seems like the kind of thing they'd want to gain in a bargain. I hope that that helps.

Rapunzelian, as in Evren's hair is ridiculously long. Like Shakespearian refers to Shakespeare or like Shakespeare. Ok, so I guess I only got half of the story of that one betrayal started in this chapter, but hey, it's that much more than what you all knew before.


	16. Royal Privileges (B-Cut)

_Quick to change her mind and grow bored - largely that was the Tarkatan blood coursing through her veins, yet Shang Tsung creating her from nothing as an adult did its fair to scar and shape the woman she was - Mileena had ordered them to move from the quaint little side chamber Ko'atal would use to schmooze and flatter his way up the ladder. Decked in veils to keep the grit and sand out, all the blues and greens hanging overhead made one think of that bird from Earthrealm, a pee-cock, she thought it was called. Studded and stitched from the remainder of dead from a number of the realms, the furniture was somber as a fatal dusk, the light walls cut in vertical intervals to house slender candles that dripped black wax, and the bone-hard floor was draped in rich Tai-Gore furs. This place was suitable enough for her to conduct the official business of the day in, but once the dignitary from Seido had spoken his peace and parted, it was time for the real fun to start.

Admittedly the transition from point A to the bedchamber was a tad bit sloppy as her other guards were slow to grasp that their rightful queen was itching for a change of scenery; true the dark-haired beauty may have needed to raise her voice, but once they caught on things briskly fell into place. _It always did._

"Come now, let us in." Purring suggestively in the toned mother's pale white ear as she opened the bedroom door for the Kahnum, Kitana's imperfect clone glanced back over her shoulder at Ko'atal. Merely one of many perks she expected to reap before the day was done, watching that slave-befriending Osh-Tekk squirm was already beginning to work wonders in her core, and seeing the room where the supposed couple lay only made the hybrid realize that she had made a great choice in changing the locale. "I was going to make you watch us play," smirking at the mental visuals of what they would do, something about the set-up of the room told her that he hadn't seen her enjoy herself in a long time now, "but I think this more enjoyable."

Trapped in lush silks of violet and plum and lavender, the bed was fit for a full-sized family and covered in nebulous velvets of strong wine and wispy lilacs, but what really caught the hybrid's attention was that it was cut in two, a stone slab of natural volcanic amethyst used as a night table between the halves. The side closest to the door was considerably more unkempt and smeared by a throw the color of sunshine, likely to match the white vase of yellow flowers that accented the stubby cinnamon reading candle, while the portion of the mattress shoved almost out on the open balcony was much more modest. Glossing a precursory glance over the contents of the room before it became soiled, the sight of the plants seemed to stir something within the other best part of this coup, a ghost of a forgotten memory perhaps.

 _No matter,_ Mileena had brought the hellion there for one reason and one reason alone, _Let her mind wander, so long as she gives that body to me, her Queen and Empress._ Technically the succubus had only come to serve the Kahnum alongside her drool companion for the sake of their lamentable triplets - or was it twins? - but whatever the reasons were, the other woman had come to play with her. So long as her subjects remained in her realm, they belonged to Mileena for as long as she was the ruler of Outworld. _That will be quite a while, if I have anything to say about it!_ Even if it was only just this once, the monarch would be entertained by the demon she had sought after all this time.

Closing the door on the Osh-Tekk's broad face before he could muster up a reply - and knowing how boringly diplomatic Ko'atal could be, there would likely only be stern looks and a puffed-up chest - Mileena turned a greedy eye upon the two shapely mounds that had so thoughtfully seen fit to finally agree to her invitations. Lovely and beautiful and having nothing to hide, the Empress didn't completely mind an audience for these types of appointments, although gathering from how many threats and promises it took to wear the outsider down to this point, her plaything was a bit on the shy side.

In fact, special care been taken to ensure that this day would come to fruition. Evren and her interests were easy enough for the hybrid to figure out - the mother desired to look out for her children, so all it took to coerce her into this was just one really good, genuinely earnest warning that their lives would be in peril if it didn't happen between them soon. Absolutely terrified of harm befalling her spawn, it was almost tiresomely effortless to make her agree in the end, but after all the lore that had passed through the realms, Mileena was determined to know what it was like to have a succubus, so she tried not to let that get the better of the moment. Still though, if the demoness had been so quick to comply, there was a chance that this day would be ruined by a lack of enthusiasm, so the Kahnum took extra precautions to guarantee that the other woman would perform at her peak...

"Shall we begin," shorter without her heels but virtually the same size in them, the ethereal man-eater cooed as she lowered her own mask to reveal true Tarkatan features, which were blessedly blurred by the proximity as she pressed her chest against the inhuman and strangely alluring matron. _That magic charm must have been more willing to play along than the demoness herself. Good, that will make the elixir that much more potent._ Leaning in close to the succubus and mashing their breasts together so that height counted for naught, her other hand brushed suggestively along the abundantly bare span of her guard's shoulder as she spoke, "or shall I call in Tanya and her tonfa?"

Tanya was far from her favorite person in the world (no one really liked the treacherous Edenian from what mommy could gather), and having seen her in battle before, Evren was not particularly curious to encounter that in a social situation. "Shall I do it myself or give my Empress a show?" Grinning that she was finally starting to play along, Mileena just wanted the older of the two out of her clothes as soon as possible. Understanding that gleam in those striking cat-like eyes, the demoness backed up so that she had a better range of movement and began to undo her own protective gear, casting it carelessly aside on the pale dappled marble. _Hanzo, forgive me for what I'm about to do_.

Gold as the sand in the sun outside, the solid chest piece was connected to two matching corset-like plates by thick sable straps that weren't quite leather, but once it was off, only a itsy-bitsy portion of torso was covered by a diagonal byzantium sash and the left breast not at all. Unclasping hidden hooks in her leg holsters and loosening hearty strands that matched the rest of the ensemble and bound chunks of the same metal, all that left was crawling thigh highs and the zigzagging orchid leotard.

Stripped of her armor and paused demurely with one arm locked around her waist, the mother had more pressing matters on her mind to dwell over than simply just cutting away the scant fabric or leaving it on; genetics had made her her father's victim once more, but more than about herself, the demoness worried about her children. Despite the fact that she was only doing it to keep them safe from some sort of assassination squad or 'accident', how would they look at her if they ever came to learn of this shameful act? Would others lord the existence of this moment over their heads later on? It was only for them, but what if they only heard a fragment of this incident, what kind of example would she be setting by allowing the Empress to have her way? But what other choice was there?

 _What other choice was there?_ That might have been the exact thing she had said to her firstborn when they met for the first time, so many years later than it should have been. That was probably the worst thing she could have said, but it was the truth. A dingy underground traveling circus was no place for a child, let alone a newborn, and she had faith that her first love would care for their girl with everything he had. It killed her worse than any other pain she had known, but in her mind it had been for the best. Emren loathed her enough as it was for leaving, yet if the succubus had kept the baby after she was born, she would have hated her mother for worse reasons.

Fierce and aglow with desire, Mileena's orange orbs stared at the demoness as if the other woman was the first meal after a forced fast, the slitted pupils roving hungrily over modest curves; Tanya had a much nicer body by far, but this might just make for an interesting change of pace. Assuming of course that the guardian could pull her head out of the clouds long enough to do something more than just stand there like a mannequin. Someone more mannered than the ruler may have found that hesitance and embarrassment to be just the shtick they wanted, but for the hybrid it was incredibly boring, so it would seem that there was need for her contingency plan after all. Skilled from years of handling sai, the clone smirked, and with a sly slither reached into the folded layers cinching her waist, fingers brushing between silks and satin as she extracted a vial with a clear-blue sheen to it and a diamond-shaped stopper.

Bottle sparkling in the light of the sun outside, the sudden flash of light caught Evren's attention and ripped her from her reverie, "What's that?" Whatever it was, the succubus had a very bad feeling about that decanter.

Swaying in a seductive fashion to close the space between them once more, the hybrid didn't miss a beat as she stood before the hellion, index and middle fingers tracing the shape of the bone before walking a trail from exposed ribs up passed the space between panicked and heaving breasts, lingering for just a fraction of a second before jumping off to bring the chin up. Higher and higher, Mileena didn't back off until Evren was staring up at the ceiling, and during that time, the unstable monarch opened the flask and downed the potion in a single voracious gulp, sucking every last drop up. Bringing her servant down to her knees in a fluid motion, the Kahnum bent her head over the impling's quivering lips, planting a dripping wet kiss on her. Before Evren could even think of struggling against those unnatural Tarkatan features or the fluid that was coating those lips, the hybrid placed her hands over her pale throat to frighten the succubus into opening her mouth; once the opportunity arose, Mileena deepened the embrace, transferring nearly the entire contents of the brew in that one kiss.

 _And now the real fun begins!_

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 **A/N:**

It wasn't quite a review, but I really want to thank **KynthiaOlympia** for all of the acknowledgement! And dare I say praise? Writing is my absolute number one passion in life, so I take this all very seriously, and very very personally, so I can't even even begin to find the words! And also thank you for the actual review too!

And to **FanFanFiction** (an interesting identifier, I have to say), thank you very much for the review! Glad to see that you're liking the story so far ^^ Yeah, no one wants to see her be a homewrecker it would seem, which I actually take for a good sign, that people want to like her if they don't just yet. As an OC writer, that really is great for me to be able to even think that I can reach that conclusion. And seriously, no one really seems to like Kotal and Cassie as a pairing, do they? That's fine, the world would be boring if we all had the same opinions about everything. Yeah, those conversations really do make quite an impact with me. In other words readers, I have a mind of where this is all going, but I am more than willing to consider what you have to say. Even if I don't end up following the trend of your wishes, I still like listening to you guys and having these interactions. Personally I like Cassie with Kotal more, and Erron with Jacqui, but that's a pairing that's growing on me slowly. Erron and Cassie I mean. That last part, about being open with your opinion, that's a great quality I think, both in this situation and just in life. If that came of preachy or anything, my apologies, I didn't mean it like that. Really, depending on the characters and the pairing, I can be that way as well. Like I said, I have some beef with Sonya as a character.

Because I imagine that from the beginning Mileena didn't care much for Kotal, that he was already winning over the kingdom, whom Mileena overlooked mostly as "slaves" or just generally lower than herself. Again that's just guess work though, credited largely to what I stumbled across in the comics/wikia. Personally I agree that she wouldn't have been the best Empress, but I think that her behavior/causes of downfall would have been different. Guess that that's just me though. Actually I kind of like Tanya, since she was my character of choice in MK4 (which was the first MK game I myself played). Ok, so maybe I thought back then that she was Kitana but in yellow, whatever, we all make mistakes.

Grr! I had an idea and got really far into it (minus all of the snafus I had to rationalize through) before I realized that the timeline wouldn't jive! So super pissed about that! But I know even now in my upset that it's for the best, because what I had planned would have just ruined so much, but there was so much of it! So much T.T Well on the bright side, I can always save it for another time and rework it for later, if the situation arises... Actually, all I had to do was delete a few lines and change around some pronouns/nouns and such, so it really wasn't as bad as I feared! On that note though, if something doesn't quite add up, it might just be that I missed something, so keep an eye for that, but I'm pretty sure that I fixed it all. Pretty sure... Anyways, sorry it took so long for me to put part two up, and I really hope that you all like it!


	17. When In Doubt, Ask Ermac

The Kahn, as it just so happened, did have a bigger problem with handling it than Zyanyo had promised. Arriving in Z'Unkahrah in roughly under an Earthrealm hour after the platoon had been briefed on their mission, Johnny Cage, his team, and the twins were all received personally by Ermac on behalf of the Kahn and taken to a secondary reception hall to wait until they could be seen. For Cassie, that only served to salt the wound of just now learning of a rather important part of Ko'atal's life; returned once more to this part of Outworld, frankly Hitomi and Zyanyo were reminded of their childhood, both the good and the fucked up. Only vaguely aware of his Princess's fondness for the warrior-king and arriving at the last minute from talking with one of his least favorite producers about a possible gig, a jet-lagged Johnny Cage would have sworn that this delay in welcome was intentional.

Previously there acting on behalf of her father for the clan, Hitomi being back in Outworld was almost like returning home from visiting a friend or coming back for a relaxing bubble bath post running a few simple errands, yet for Zyanyo, whom had so far only been sent out on missions around Earthrealm and a few times in places like Seido and Chaosrealm, it was almost like falling unexpectedly back into the past. _For whatever reason, his father did not like him to wander far from home without some kind of supervision_. Very much the same and out of the way, the residence they had known as children had been maintained by Ko'atal, but in truth was now more of place of solitude and privacy than a home. Always the favored when it came to the then-future Emperor, the cryomancer had remained in contact with the Osh-Tekk, the female Hasashi less so; she had only seen the house she grew up in once since coming to Outworld, though had he the chance to, something told her that her twin brother would have been allowed to stay there for as long as he needed.

Flustered by the earlier events of that day still and the recollections it trickled back, honestly the kunoichi was glad that they hadn't been brought there for this appointment, as she did not like to dwell on the accidental discovery of her mother's one act of betrayal (even though technically she was single at the time). Zyanyo, on the other hand, was using this downtime to multitask - partially probably glad of this interval so that he could find every possible reason to complain and hear his own voice, the Lin Kuei was very clearly interested in getting closer to the monk. "This is nice of course, being a palace, but it's a shame that you weren't able to see where Hitomi-hime and I were raised; it's not quite on the same level, but Ko'atal's private residence has a bit of everything to it." Sparkling mischievously, his blue eyes betrayed a second-hand wish to stir up trouble with the Sargent, but thankfully for her his primary objective took precedence, "I would have loved to show you my room."

Attempting to hold his encroaching bitch of a migraine back as he cooled his heels on the far end of the couch-like benches that shaped the shale alcove, Johnny cringed for the entire company, "Hey kid, did you really just say that? We're all adults here," the aging actor glanced over at Cassie and chose to blink when she frowned over in his direction at what was about to come out of his mouth, "most of whom are of a consenting age, so why not just say it? Even facing the end of the world when Grandma and Grandpa snuck out of the nursing home, Jac-a-Tak still found the time to work something out."

 _That's right_ , shocked that Mr. Cage was able to put something into perspective for her, Specialist Briggs glanced up from Cassie as the other girl flicked through her phone for pictures of guys in weird diaper-like bandages after encountering a certain move they all referred to as the 'testi-kill', _Takeda and I were able to make a genuine connection in the middle of a war zone, one that was more than just an apocalypse high._ Playing the tried-and-true silent treatment out as much as she could before they arrived in Outworld, Jacqui gazed thoughtfully over at Takeda for the first time since he had gotten back from the bathroom with Hitomi, noting the way that he wasn't seated next to his ex. True he was sitting across from her, the farmer's daughter saw it as a step in a good direction that they weren't casually flaunting anything, such as an affair they wanted to continue to ride out for as long as they possibly could.

 _If_ he were going to make a move on her, now that her mother's looming fate hung in question whatever defense and wit the Shirai Ryu had would be all but evaporated or scattered in the wind. _In that way it seemed unlikely, but..._ What if, in those unaccounted moments the two ninja shared in privacy, something already happened, so now this stupor the telepath was suffering was brought on by guilt more than concern? It might have been cynical and it might have been cold, yet Jacqui had to admit that learning that a loved-one could possibly be dying would be a good cover to hide the revolting stench of remorse. _Would Takeda do this to her? Was he even capable of_ it? Had someone asked her back when they starting going out, she would have been able to answer that immediately and without even a hint of doubt, however, after learning that there was a whole person with a deep history he had failed to tell her of, Jacqui could feel the seeds of distrust beginning to grow.

 _A troubling thought, but if she was so prepared to loss her faith in him, did that mean that she was waiting the whole time for the slightest excuse?_

Blinded to the internal sufferings of the others and wholly curious to see how the Lin Kuei would respond to Papa Cage's words, the archer leaned forward in his seat between the twins, peripherals barely registering that vaguely traumatized stare on Takeda's blank face across the way at Johnny's left; the bowman was even less involved at the way that the kunoichi kept looking around the room as if she were waiting for someone or something to happen. Ever since coming back from the bathroom, the pair of Shirai Ryi seemed little more than puppets on a single morose string, one moody and the other just lost. Ordinarily that would have been fodder for him, but in truth the Shaolin was greatly enjoying the attention Zyanyo was heaping on him. _At least there's one other person of intelligence here!_

Still though, he wouldn't quite be himself without lighting at least one bomb underfoot, "So Mr. Cage," snapping up so fast at the sound of the bowman's voice that it was a miracle she retained such a firm grip on her phone, Cassie didn't know where the punk was going to go with this, but it was obviously going to end nowhere good, "did the Sarge introduce you to her special new friend yet?"

Cheeks a bright pink from the memory and titillating thoughts that came with it, it was Hitomi who jumped at that bait first, "That was just a diversionary tactic! To confuse my enemy so I could creep in-"

"And what?" Well aware of what Jin was doing, the cryomancer had to admit that he really admired the monk's style, which only made him that much more attracted to the archer. _What_ , if Hitomi-hime could drool over both Techno and Blondilocks at the same time, _why couldn't he express an interest in wanting to both abstain for a whirl at that whole meaningful outlook crap, while also mentally wracking his brains for an old memory of where the nearest empty room would be? So what if they were completely conflicting ideals, big fucking dea_ l. "Hit second base?" Seriously though, they were hanging out socially right now and had a rather good outline of the other's tongue already, so what more did the other male want? Zyanyo wasn't a hundred percent opposed to waiting it out, but historically he had never been made to sit on the sidelines very long. _Thank you mom, for being a freak of nature_.

Eternal and as patiently omnipotent as the sun that blazed overhead and filtered through every last window brighter than the first before it, the warm, colorless rays heating the veined shale tile, Ermac lingered by the doorless opening of the secluded nook with a statuesque demeanor as the collection of souls observed the body language of the team and read their innermost workings. Fond of the actor as any other person that had ever met him - so not at all - the soulkeeper had known Johnny Cage the longest, yet due to her numerous rendezvous with the current Kahn, they were far more familiar with the offspring the man co-created with the woman Sonya Blade. The other female in the team Ermac did not know very well outside of being ordered to capture and eliminate her, though they were aware that she was the daughter of Jackson "Jax" Briggs, the man who's arms they claimed so many years ago. The fusion of souls was just as equally aware of the males and their family heritages as well, yet their interactions were of even less importance to them. Examining the main team, they perceived that the lot of the Earthrealmers were what Cassandra would call a "red hot mess".

Recalling the twins from when they were children and terrorizing the architecture and textile industry of the realm with their half-formed powers of fire and ice, Ermac gazed from the younger to the elder and back around again, finding roughly one train of thought in the boy's mind and a hive of worry and regret in the girl's. Easily the more confident of the pair even when they wore swaddling garments, Zyanyo had rarely had a moment in life when he did not know what he wanted, and so the cryomancer would often focus on one main objective at a time; apparently that had hardly changed about him, so Ermac thought better than to answer that last non-verbal remark of his. Answering either of the twins was comparable to folly, yet in their own way they did not hate Hitomi. Determined in other ways, the female counterpart had been prone to emotional anguish ever since learning certain truths; mere days after the fact she had even admitted to the stoic collection of wisdom that she had been vexed over stumbling into the wrong place at the wrong time.

 _You are conflicted, daughter of Scorpion_ , not only able to read minds akin to the son of the blind swordsman Kenshi Takahashi but possessing the gift to communicate mentally, they spoke to the Kahn's step-daughter even as she lurched to her feet and began to pace the middle of the floor between the occupied seats, _Why?_ It was merely a formality of manners than an actual question since the answer just presented itself before them, yet one they felt obligated to perform: As with the Saurian Reptile, the girl had viewed the fusion more favorably than her brother, whom had actually fainted in fright the first time he beheld their true form. _You did not pursue physical relations with Takahashi Takeda_.

 _But I wanted to. And I..._ Soft-spoken even in her head, the kunoichi lapsed into a ponderous reverie that very well might have been construed as conspiracy to commit treason, if she were technically a citizen of Outworld; it was a fine line of a technicality that easily could have been overlooked however, especially by someone as loyal to the throne as Ermac, _I can't stopping thinking about her..._ It was a kiss that never should have been, that ought to have meant nothing, and yet it was plaguing the Shirai Ryu in every spare second that dragged. _I don't want to want to know what it would be like to carry on with what I started, but I do. What does that make me? Am I just curious, is this just a phase like so many will try to tell me? Was it just the heat of the moment?_

* * *

 **A/N** :

Hmm, I'm not quite sure how to say what I mean here - trust me, that happens to me fairly regularly, but not so much in this story yet - but as always I'll give it my best crack! **FanFanFiction** , as you say this may be "my" story, but really it - I - wouldn't be here without the readers. Well I mean we'd still be here, only ignored and invisible. My point is that I respect my readers. And thank you!

And days like these are the reason you should go to bed when you get tired. Anyways, thank you very much for the review **KnythiaOlympia**! Like I've repeatedly said, keeping the story unexpected is what I aim for! Well, one of the things!

No problem **guest** , I try! Really I encourage anyone and everyone who even has a hint of a doubt about something to ask me what the hell. I think that makes me have to examine my own work and as a result become a better writer, and beside just being good manners it's good to have interaction between the audience. So it's good knowing that I can help, and great hearing that I'm keeping up the good work!

Sorry that this chapter took so long to come out in comparison to some of the others! I have to share my computer, so I don't always have all the time I'd like to work, and lately that's been a real issue, but even so I will sally forth and do my best for you guys!

Concerning the chapter (man I swear, I really can't start a sentence out with the word 'concerning' without thinking of/being tempted to bring up The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings!), this is just what I think when it comes to the little details. Personally I would find it strange if the realms all operated with the same model/concept of time as Earthrealm. Like maybe Outworld and Earthrealm would be on a relatively similar clock with a calendar year of 364/5 days, but who's to say that there are twenty-four hours in a day in Outworld? Maybe there are twenty-tthree, and weeks stretch for eight days. Somewhat off the the point, I imagine that in the Neatherrealm time yawns onwards, if it even passes in the first place. Seido probably has only even numbered days, months, hours, and all that, while Chaosrealm would have absolutely no concern for the concept of time, or at least just enough of it to screw with other people *cough* Seido *cough*. Mind I have absolutely no proof of this theory either way, so it's just one opinion of what could be. Because Johnny calling Cassie "Princess" is just the best thing, lol. If Shinnok is Grandma, than that would make Quan Chi Grandpa. I have no idea if Jac-a-Tak/Jacqu-i-Tak/Jac-i-Tak is a real pairing name for Jacqui and Takeda, but it's not that terrible, is it? I mean maybe it is if Johnny's the first to use/coin it. Again, Hitomi and Zyanyo are not Ko'atal's step kids - most of Kotal's guards just identify them that way. Also, mind that I did try to keep with how Ermac would be, but for whatever reasons, he's a hard one for me to nail.


	18. Huginn and Muninn

_You would betray Kotal kahn, after all that he has given you and your kin?_ Ermac and the many within felt a sense of conflict at the fleeting slew of thoughts that surrounded the kunoichi's innermost shell, musing upon her words and images of what was. Long ago they had been educated in well-known facts and colloquial concepts such as 'teenage rebellion' and the grandiose pomposity of bravado, yet having been created by the Emperor Shao Kahn and then subsequently ruled by Mileena for so long, they had yet to grasp the delicacy of treading certain lines. On one hand, they were loyal to the Kahn and were bound by honor to do what what was right for the ruler of Outworld, even when that meant revealing the insurgency (or possibility of) of close allies and family members, and on the other...

Fealty, decorum, benevolence. Those were all traits that the construct of souls could fathom even if they did not exclusively apply to them, but kindness, tenderness, and compassion were all sentiments that they failed to comprehend, and those characteristics were all encompassed in the most powerful memory they possessed of the young half-breed. A fleeting thing really, the scene of old was more of a moment frozen in time and in their mind than a legitimate playback of a fractured episode; a living photograph like those that they made in Earthrealm called a GIF (Cassie and the other humans had brought over many kinds of technologies and even a new lexicon), age would have dulled the colors down to a murky sepia in the eyes of a being that was not eternal. Ermac may not have gotten things like positive emotions, or really even emotion for that matter, but they did know that the state of the recollection was less important than the actual act of being bothered to remember in the first place.

"I have something for you," hands held out sweetly, the first thing that had caught their attention was not what was being offered by the then eight-year-old but the filthy coat of dried muck that covered the girl up to the elbow, "a present." Shorter, pudgier, and roughly the same exact shape as she was now, Hitomi at eight was missing several of her teeth, and they knew that at least two of the gaps was caused by horseplay with her brother. Grinning up at him in earnest as they stood guard outside of the Empress's chamber while she entertained a visiting dignitary, those missing teeth were that much more prominent.

Reasoning two-fold, there was a part of them that was suspicious that the child was alone: as a set of two, Zyanyo was nearby more often than not; Evren, their mother and Ko'atal's consort, had taken great lengths to ensure that her children were always under constant supervision. As a matter of fact, Ermac knew from the deal that she had brokered with the Empress that the Edenian 'prince' Rain should have been watching the pair that day. No more suited for tending after the offspring of another than any of the other like-minded kombatants, the soulkeeper knew that that particular decision was a horrible mistake on everyone's part, as the purple-clad general was not about to actually honor that order. Knowing him, they figured that it was for the best that way, yet that still left the question of where Zyanyo had gotten to.

Frowning in disappointment when they did not move to accept the gift, the young Hitomi looked genuinely hurt by what she took to be rejection, but still she persisted in her attempt; standing up on her tippy toes to close the considerable height difference, the girl thrust her arms out as far as the sockets would allow, "Take it. I picked it just for you."

Continuing to stand at the thick wooden door like a statue that wasn't quite stone, they stared down at the pitiful creature and the offering in her hands. Oozing a shade shy of scarlet in places and cracking chips of sun-baked earth in others, the tar-like clay that encased the youngling in a wan hue of vermilion was beginning to reek like the riverside outside of the city, which would explain at least where they had been playing that day. Shining brown and resolute that she wouldn't move until they accepted her offering, the girl didn't even jump at the sound of her brother being chased naked across the hall by their mother carrying a soapy sponge, although she did shuffle her feet when the passing succubus looked in their direction.

"What trickery are you scheming, girl?" Ermac knew the names of the twins, but that was a familiarity they did not wish to encourage. Glancing down their nose at her, the collection of souls realized that the intended token was a flower with a bent milk-white stalk and countless blunt petals of a deep titian tat fanned out around a green cat's eye.

Unaware at that time that they could read minds as easily as looking at a person, she rebutted the idea that she was anything like her brother in that regard, _Practical jokes are more Zy's style than mine, but if I say that out loud mom will have my hide too_. Offering the flower a third time, Hitomi told him in a voice that would imply she would stay at his side all day until he took it, "When Zyanyo went exploring further upstream, I went downstream and found a little meadow full of flowers like this. They reminded me of you, so I looked until I found the perfect one - the stalk's a little crooked, but it was taller than the others, which meant that it was stronger than it let on at first glance. Just like you." Seeing the questions in their glowing eyes as they finally relieved her of the dying plant, she went on, "Mom told us that we should appreciate the people in our lives, so I wanted to do something for everyone. I helped my dad prepare the funeral for the village that was overrun a few months back, and I made my mom a special dinner for each year we've been alive. I helped D'Vorah repair a part of the hive that Zyanyo accidentally broke when we were stayed with her when everyone else was gone to some obscure corner of the realm, and for Baraka-"

"You have given us your thanks, now begone!" Shooing the girl away before she made them want to chew their own ear off, many of the souls within were greatly impressed that a child so young would undertake such a serious task of their own volition.

Whatever kind of woman the girl had grown into now, Ermac would remember the child she was on that day so many years passed, and that brought conflict to the bouncing souls inside as a good number of them were as close to touched by that one act of kindness as a being without a tangible existence could be. _The girl has no proper place in this world, much like us_. _No_ , a second voice chided the first that had spoken, _the half-breed will never be like us_. A third chimed in to the din, _We are loyal to the Kahn, he must know what she did, what betrayals she plots in that pretty little head even now!_ And a fourth surfaced to agree with all of them, _Hitomi Hasashi may share certain similarities, but she shall never truly be like us, nor shall anyone. The Kahn shall be informed at once of this treachery_ , pausing for a moment of consideration, the fourth and most domineering of them mused upon the chances of mercy, _We shall let him decide what is best._

The past was the past, and that was where it belonged. Although that wasn't to say that they would neglect to point out the full truth of the matter to the Emperor, that the Shirai Ryu was at adds with herself over the matter. Fondness was not the word they would have chosen to explain it as she merely intrigued them - how could the child not, being as delicate and different from her siblings, from the rest of Outworld's inhabitants as she was? - yet whatever the proper word for it would be, they only knew that it would be a pity if the girl met her demise now, especially before her mother.

* * *

 **A/N** :

In my original plot line Hitomi having feelings for Cassie never came up, but my writing tends to be organic and just kind of happens, although I'm glad for it. Personally I fully support being who you are and loving who/whatever you love, but before I just had a hard time actually writing that kind of thing, so I'm really glad that I'm improving and able to come up with a story that has "controversial" issues in it. Really that kind of a thing shouldn't matter, but it does in this world, so all we can do is our personal best. I don't mean to get on my soapbox, so that's all I'll say on the matter (for now). Anyways, my point was that I want to thank **KnythiaOlympia** for yet another encouraging review! And as if I could leave Johnny out of it!

Hello Team **guest** (seriously, thank you for specifying which you were, I really appreciate that) ^^ Without saying what will happen with the whole home-wrecking issue, I would think that both Hitomi and Zyanyo were raised better than to just go ruining peoples lives for no good reason (not that I'm saying that that's what anyone is actually getting at), so when/if there is any such act it would be done with hesitance. There's no good excuse for cheating, like ever, so I'm not trying to defend that - I just want to point out that Hitomi is conscious of the fact that both Takeda and Cassie are taken, so she's trying to resist doing anything that they will come to regret, but emotions and attraction can be a real bitch that one can't always control the way they'd want to. That's just for humans.

Urgh, this chapter is/was just a beast to write! I really do hate bridging from point A to point B sometimes! Hopefully though someone finds it worth the trouble. Really though, Rain doesn't care for that "mongrel" family at all. Oh, and if you didn't know already, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) are Odin's pet ravens in Norse mythology. The title makes sense if you squint.

OMG, total side note, but I was watching the show Baby Daddy the other night, and I laughed so hard when I realized that Legacy's Liu Kang was a guest star! From lowly kitchen dish-washer to professional Chef and restaurant owner, lol. This is funny to me because I just finished re-watching season two of Legacy last week or so.


	19. The Kahn-sequence of Kissing Cassie Cage

Disheveled by every stretch of the imagination, the crisp white mandatory liens were half twisted around Kung Jin's shoulders as the archer held his pounding head lest the early morning bugles that announced the start of a new day for the grunts and mild hangover split it in twine, his eyes squinting from the early dawn light that filtered in through the modest window. Last night was a bit of a blur at first, but when the bowman's vision stopped spinning enough to notice that there was another body cramped on the bed, it began to come back to him in vivid bursts. Waking up next to a cute dark-haired stranger he picked up from the bar on the base, the monk questioned for a moment if anything had happened between the two of them, besides the intense make-out that almost led them astray - vaguely, the Shaolin recalled putting his foot down on hooking up with someone he didn't know. If he hadn't that last night, that would have made him no better than Cassie.

Blinking open one blue eye and then another from dreams of what might have been, the then-unidentified Lin Kuei Zyanyo gazed groggily over at his dashingly bedraggled companion, a grin forming already at the sight of the other male's strapping muscled form; the only thing marring that perfect hide were the lines from where the pillow and blankets dug in. "I guess I really should make it more of a habit to stay the night." Somewhat disappointed to hear that the nameless visitor was _that_ kind of guy, there was another part of Jin that took some small pride in being the one to get him to spend the full night, even if it was only due to some kind of a mistake like passing out before he could get the chance. Cocking his head at the way the bowman was gawking, it wasn't too difficult for the cryomancer to guess what was going on in that pretty little head, "I wouldn't read too much into it." He might have said that, but Zyanyo really was sort of happy that he had been too drunk to wonder off like he usually did after getting what he wanted. _Maybe that had something to do with being denied the big prize_.

Before anything else could be said or done between the pair - meaningful or otherwise - the cold plastic land-line next to the bed began to shake violently in it's monochromatic cradle on the covered black box that was really a mini-fridge, forcing Jin to answer sooner than later if he cared to avoid an unholy wrath of the most scorching degree. Kung Jin thought foolishly for a moment that it might have been new orders for the team, but that dream died shortly after conception.

Half dead to the world from just waking up and half tempted to see where this could have gone in its own natural course, Jin kept one eye on his guest as the monk picked up the glossy ecru receiver and began to frown at the growing list of responsibilities he had to perform that morning alone. Simmering like a dormant volcano just below the surface and basically an adult in the strictest sense of the word, the stranger crawled out of the bed as smoothly as his hangover would allow and headed for the door. Asking for a moment in both conversations, Jin put his hand over the mouthpiece before he received an answer from the other person on the other end of the call, "You're leaving already?"

Not really the type to follow up and call, the grandmaster's son might have done what was in his power to avoid this sort of scene with the new recruits his father picked up, yet for the first time in memory he was glad that they had fallen asleep completely dressed. New to the whole waking up together thing, Zyan played it cool and shrugged indifferently at the exit, noticing that his leather jacket was thrown haphazardly on the floor not two feet away from where he stood, "You're busy, and I have a mission to see to that requires my full attention. But if it really means so much to you, I promise that I'll come back and see you again." The art of the follow-up might have been foreign to the cryomancer, yet raised as a man of his word, he promised that he'd return later. After all, a jacket as fine as that shouldn't be left behind so carelessly.

Just as the Lin Kuei swore, he was reunited with the Shaolin; what neither of the young men expected was that it would be so soon after departing from the other's company. In fact, the unexpected quickly became the norm of that afternoon and one bombshell after another was dropped on the special Special Forces team: Hitomi, Zyanyo's twin sister, was revealed to be not only Takeda's ex-girlfriend but Hanzo's daughter; after that Zyanyo himself showed up and made both his interest in the bowman and disdain for his mother's husband painfully transparent. As if that wasn't bad enough, he spitefully revealed that "Techno" (Takeda) and Hitomi were not only exes but each other's firsts, opening a number of scars and creating all manner of issues between all three of the females in the room. That tension escalated to the physical when Cassie Cage assaulted Scorpion's spawn over a jealous misunderstanding, but more crafty than she let on, the wraith-succubus hybrid turned it around on the other girl, kissing her to moot the outcome of the battle. Partially backfiring, that tactic caused more trouble than anything else, and Takeda had been ordered to escort his old girlfriend out of the room to clean up the bloody nose Cassie had given her. And then, on a mission to gather necessary ingredients for a potion that was not even a guaranteed fix to whatever was ailing Mrs. Hasashi, the six twenty-somethings and Johnny Cage (whom had thankfully been absent for all the prior drama) arrived in Outworld, where Ermac had promptly gone to the Kahn to inform him that his "step-daughter" and serious beau Cassie had engaged in a treasonous affair.

"And to think that mom always thought Hitomi-hime was the good twin!" Zyanyo, unable to hold in his mirth at the hilarity of the situation of his sister getting thrown into a prison cell by the same man they were waiting on, laughed across the room at his sibling, looking from her disgusted look of pure loathing over to the resident telepath, "Tell me, did you see this coming when Ermac left and returned with four armed guards?" Chortling harder than ever and only making a minimal attempt at ceasing, the boy had no doubt in his mind that this would all boil over and she'd walk out with a slap on the wrist at most. Cassie, on the other hand, wouldn't be nearly as lucky as that, even if she was permitted to leave Outworld again intact. "Techno, man-to-man, you have to tell me if this was the same look on her face when daddy dearest caught you two in the act! I imagine that it must have looked a lot like this." Growling, a pair of dirty hands lashed out between the spaces in the bars to suffocate the Lin Kuei or to gauge out his eyes, but the cryomancer merely grinned and moved closer to the free Shirai Ryu. _Today was fun, if not messy._

Tinted with the hints of a flush, Takeda couldn't quite bring himself to look at Hitomi as she transitioned from snarling animal to frightened child and back again, but he couldn't make himself look away either, so he focused on the conditions of her holding cell instead. Dank, damp, musty, and every other miserable adjective associated with prisons, the only light in the unwashed holding cells came from the candles that the patrolling guards carried on the brass candelabras otherwise mounted by the one reinforced door. Coated in cobwebs and crawling with critters that made scurrying echoes even now, the ceiling and walls left no mystery as to how, in the span of less than an hour, a captive could look as if they'd been there for ages. _Today sucks_.

Aware that Jacqui wasn't there in order to be with her best friend in the blonde's greatest hour of need, he had no idea were she was while they fiddled their thumbs in the face of the clock, although if he had to guess, his current girlfriend would be with Mr. Cage since the Emperor was busy talking to Cassie in private. Too bad that Zyanyo and Jin chose to be here with them instead of antagonizing that already inflamed situation, although as annoying as them being there was getting, the mind-reader was grateful for their presence here. "Tomi and I were never actually seen by the Grandmaster - he just caught us getting dressed one day after we finished." Reading both of their minds at once even as she shot the memory down before it could properly stir from it's forgotten corner in the closet, he found that the cryomancer and the archer were on the same page with that one, _so you Finished Her first._ And now it was Takeda's turn to be sick with the two of them.

* * *

 **A/N** :

Wow, thank you all so much! This story is now over the 2000 view mark! Yes, that last chapter was pretty much a flashback, but on the bright-side it was told from a completely different perspective. And just in case anyone is thinking that that the last two chapters was just me favoring Hitomi (which probably no one is/was), that is incorrect - chapter 17 had a lot of different people in it, and 18 was about Ermac reflecting on what he knew of Hitomi to figure out if he should inform the Kahn or not of her kissing Cassie. He chose to do the responsible thing. And yes, the first chunk of this chapter was a flashback of Zyanyo and Jin just that morning, before a certain Kunoichi was thrown in jail for her actions.

 **KynthiaOlympia** , once more thank you so very much for the review! I'm really glad that I could inject some humor into the mix as well!

Well **guest** , they are in Outworld now, but I'd say that the chapter has more to do with consequences than saving anyone's life. If anything, this chapter was a completely counter-active hindrance to that goal. But I'm glad to see that you took the time to review, so thank you for that ^^


	20. Grim Foreboding

As imposing a figure as the previous Emperor was - discounting the deranged and deposed Kahnum that ruled between the two - Kotal Kahn easily towered over the blonde that stood in earnest penitence before her lover in the empty throne room; partly respect and partially on demand, the mammoth of a decorated hall had been promptly evacuated so that they could converse in confidence. Secondary entrance taken care of, Ferra and Torr stood just outside the main sealed double-doors to ensure that the big boss was alone with blondie, but the Sargent knew that both her father and best friend were just outside for her if she needed them, hovering as close as the symbiote duo would allow. While that moment might come, Cassie was determined that she wouldn't need to lean on them as this was her business. It wasn't that she was ungrateful, she just had to prove that she could handle herself out there.

Not that it even registered on her radar at that moment, but the blonde also was aware of the personal protector covering their exposed flank. More timing than an initial interest in having to listen to the couple get hot and heavy yet again, Erron Black was tasked to guard the side door before he even caught what the hullabaloo was, raising a sly brow at Cage when she stalked passed with her eyes on the floor. Submissive was a state that the cowboy never expected to see the General's daughter in, but there was a sliver of him that kind of liked the sight. _If Emren caught me thinking that_ , the merc thought with a mental cringe, _she'd probably never let me hear the end of it_. Good thing that she was no where near to this location.

Stoic as the tan granite statues that surrounded the palace at regular intervals, the Osh-Tekk merely watched her with those strange staring pupil-less eyes that seemed able to peer beyond the surface to the soul within, his expression growing steadily more bereaved as the woman explained her side of the story. With all the might as she had ever seen in one man, Cassie knew that Ko'atal could crush her up like an empty can without breaking a sweat if he had the mind to - what made this confession so hard on her was seeing that none of that strength was in him now as he got caught up on current events. Just one good bear hug from him and her head could have been popping off like a nasty little zit, a la Tight Squeeze or Flick Trick, and yet her words seemed to be having the opposite effect on him...

 _Evren,_ name half a curse and half an apathetic reminder, Ko'atal thought of the hellion _,_ envisioning how the demoness must look on her deathbed surrounded by family and loved ones, seeing not the woman she was now, but the warrior he had married so many years ago when they were both in Shao Kahn's service, _even as you yourself lay dying,_ _you set me up for another heartache._ Problems abound previously, it was only natural that they would annul their marriage after losing their son the way they did, just as it was inevitable that there would be unsettled feelings between them now.

Not just counting Cassandra, Ko'atal had moved on since Evren, and obviously the succubus was married so it wasn't as if there was any lingering thoughts about what was or what could have been, however that didn't mean that it was so easy to forget the time they shared together, all the loss, the war, the blood and the lust. _For just a moment we had agreed to share in love and family, but loss and hate had torn us asunder, the fallen pieces too damaged and too burned to be repaired_. But it was more than that for the Osh-Tekk, it was a lack of face-to-face closure. He knew that if the opportunity arose for them to reignite the long-dead fossil of their short-lived romance, he would refuse it without any shred of doubt because neither of them were the same people that wed during that bloodstorm in Chaosrealm. Still though, closure would have been nice.

But how could he just go to her now and demand to have their final say? After their son had been murdered by his political enemies, he could not face her for the shame and responsibility he bore, nor could the man that he was at that time endure the hurt and contempt she personified. Leaving for Seido to try to learn to cope with the grief, he never would have dreamed that the hellion's path would have lead her through the Netherrealm to her past and future, yet it did, and time just made it impossible from there.

And then in her irrational panic she returned to Outworld, frightened of every passing shadow, alone, and pregnant with a child of dubious parentage. Before the mere retainer even realized what he was getting himself into, his own sufferings manifested themselves into the hopes that the child would be born male; there was no replacing what had been lost of course, but just maybe that faith could have been rewarded. It was, to a degree: In Zyanyo he could almost see the son that they had lost, but in Hitomi... Ko'atal could see the only man the succubus had ever or could ever truly love, unconditional and eternal. He tried to get passed it, to see the girl for her own person and love her anyways, but the resent he carried at being replaced was too strong.

Mindful that the prisoner awaiting interrogation was the girl he had raised since infancy, the man gaped down at the young woman standing dejectedly before him, realizing not for the first time that the blonde human was just a child herself. Sometimes Cassie's spunk and sense of adventure made him forget for just a moment that she was so new to the world, yet it was only for a moment that her age didn't intervene in some way or another, and if not the number of years she had been alive, then it was usually when she would open her mouth and speak her next vulgarity. The girl had been entertaining and possessed her share of perks, but as an Emperor it was not his place to seek happiness in such a romance. _I must not be selfish, I must put my people first._

"Why did you not resist, Cassandra?" Ko'atal inquired of the kiss the blonde had shared with the girl he helped raise for the first half of her life. If it had not been this thing now (or a similar condition), it could have been something so much worse when timing was everything. He did not want to say it now, to end it at all, especially for something as simple as a demon of lust doing what their nature intended, yet if not now, when? It had to be done, for the good of the realm.

Silent, Cassie had no real answer for that. Kissing another girl wasn't exactly a new thing for her, but it wasn't commonplace either, so maybe it was just a nameless kind of curiosity that had swept her into the moment and prevented her from thinking rationally - after all, that charming little stunt had been enacted to scramble the blonde's mind so that the victory wasn't clean. _Well congratu-fucking-lations Hasashi, you pulled it off. I'm royally screwed and as single as..._ Oh, that cleaver fucking bitch! She didn't even want to Takeda anymore, did she?! When they got out of this, Cassie swore that she'd have a few words for the ex.

* * *

 **A/N** :

Man, is it just me, or is this chapter really longer than what it seems? I guess maybe it just might appear so much extended because I had to revise so much of it as I went, or maybe a lot just happened within the approximately 1,500 words? Actually, I wanted to go all out for this, the twentieth chapter, but this is what I wrote so this is what is. I mean as a chapter I like it, so that's the important thing. Also, Erron wasn't originally going to show up in this chapter, but since it was initially too short, and I figured that the throne room would have multiple exits, it made sense to have him assisting Ferra/Torr. Do keep in mind that this was Cassie's conclusion, and not necessarily the truth. Also, when Kotal brings up being replaced by Scorpion, it was less of a romantic inclination for his ex-spouse and more just general male competition. Again this is assuming on my part (I know, I know, that's never good to do), but being a warring culture, I can see any Osh-Tekk being possessive about what was once his, even if he no longer cared about it.

And see, I might not have put in the Testi-Kill, but I did bring up some other moves. OK, so maybe the two I mentioned were fatalities, but point.


	21. A Black Outlook

Apart from the occasional murmured giberish of Torr and impatient outburst from Ferra, it was reserved and inaudible enough to hear a pin dropping in the vast and eerily void corridor. Never once taking his eyes off of the hulking beast that blocked the door, Johnny was pacing a trench through the floor in his apprehension - inaction was perhaps a greater Achilles heel of the actor than even shutting his mouth, but as her father, he knew that it was his responsibility to not do anything rash that could encourage the Kahn to take his Princess hostage (again). Back in the day, when he was younger and more reckless, when she was still his little girl and needing rescuing, the Original Earthrealmer would have just barreled in and did whatever it took to save the day, but as much as it killed him, he knew that they were beyond the time of kissing her boo-boos better after putting on the band-aids. Any parent would have said that their job was never truly done, yet for Johnny Cage, he knew deep down that his usefulness was nearing its limit when Cassie put the beat-down on Shinnok. But that hardly mattered now - Cass was his daughter, and he'd be damned if he wasn't there for her.

The same applied for Jacqui as well. That girl may not have been his daughter by any legal definition of the word, but growing up side-by-side with Cass she might as well have been, so even in all this mess Cage Sr. was not blind to her suffering, even if the loud-mouthed braggart was a few pieces of the puzzle shy of beholding the big picture. As good a girl as ever existed, Briggs had shoved whatever beef she was having with that new girl aside to be there for Cassie, which wasn't that out of the ordinary from Johnny's perspective. What did disconcert him, however, was the fact that Takeda was the subject of both girl's death-glares and girly whispers. Refreshing as it was to see that whole 'bros before hoes' mentality in action, Johnny couldn't even begin to fathom what Kenshi's son could get into that would enlist him on both women's shit-lists. _Unless he was caught screwing around on Jacqui, but the kid wasn't dumb enough screw that up. Was he?_

Neatly maintained nails digging into her flawless flesh so hard that it was only a matter of time before the skin broke, Jacqui peered pensively beyond the duo of guard dogs to the room behind, mind willing itself with all its might to see what was going on between Cassie and Ko'atal, trying at the same time to shut-down all of the negative scenarios trying to drown her in a sea of worry. If only Takeda was there, then he might have been able to at least say something comforting if he hadn't been able to probe into the developing outcome. _If Takeda were there though_ , she fumed to herself as she recalled very blatantly telling him to stay away from her after they took both Hitomi and Cassie away, _then we never would have meant Hitomi, and then Cassie wouldn't have been called into question_. In hindsight telling him to leave her alone was all the invitation he would need to go seek the other woman out, but in this moment, she could only care so much.

Up until the moment both girls had been escorted from the room by the Kahn's express orders, Jacqui had been consumed by the nagging voice in the back of her mind to such a point that she almost felt like a zombie in her own skin, powerless to silence it as Takeda's own actions fueled it to impossible limits. _No sane girlfriend wants to believe that her boyfriend would creep_ , more than that, the beauty wanted to believe that Takeda was better than that, _but why can't I shake the feeling that their story isn't finished yet?_ Haunted by what that meant and torn about how to proceed, she looked up at Mr. Cage, knowing that if Cassie did need anyone he'd be there for her. _Should I?_ If she went, there would be no going back, only forward; it might suck at first, but she was a strong girl and could handle that, but missing Cass if the blonde needed her? It was a knife that cut either way.

"Just go," apparently more observant than she had pegged him to be, Mr. Cage. shooed her on with an approving nod, "I got Cassie." And for the brief second that she thought that just maybe the actor could have a mature side, that infamous mouth opened, a roughish grin curling the corner of his lips as he gazed up at the stalwart combination of Ferra/Torr, "Don't worry about me, if Master-Blaster over there starts to monkey around I'll just have teach 'em some manners and send them back to whatever circus they came from." _That was so bad, it was face-palm worthy_.

Even in spite of the bad joke meant to lift her spirits - which in it's own way worked - Jacqui involuntarily flashed a trifling smile, indebted for the kind and remarkably comforting effort. Not for the first time Specialist Briggs thought to herself, _Cassie really does have a great father,_ simultaneously realizing that the other girl would be fine even if she wasn't, that Cassie would understand, that Johnny would be enough for now. Unable to find the words to even begin to express her gratitude for understanding her dilemma, the farmer's daughter ignored the attempted humor and returned the head bob before darting off to set her own affairs in order. _She'd let this go on for too long now, it had to end_.

On tour with Cassie for a majority of the blonde's earlier visits to Outworld, Jacqui was familiar enough with the palace (and just the general construction principle of most dungeons being primarily underground) to find herself wandering down to the lower levels of the alcazar, nothing for company save the occasional bracketed torch that flickered a warm orange glow on the tedious vestibule. The deeper down into the packed earth that her steps took her, the worse the anger began to well in her belly, tossing and turning like the full and terrible wrath of the gods as they went to war with one another. Unbidden as the enmity bubbling up to the surface, Jacqui could see herself in her mind's eye stomping down to the dungeon were the Kunoichi was waiting in bondage for the Kahn's judgment, both Shirai Ryu leaning close as Takeda offered advice and assuaging whispers to console Hitomi before the inquisition to come.

 _No_ , the visual shifted from relatively innocent and between two good friends, two kinsmen to a pair of two writhing snakes that took the form of dark-haired humans, pale ghostly limbs lost in a vague and sweaty blur as clothes evaporated into the air like iridescent dust, _that wasn't real_! Shaking her head to get rid of the images born from insecurity, Jacqui reminded herself that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, that the kunoichi would be too panicked by her predicament to find time for romance. _But what if it that wasn't impossible_? Irritating as it was invisible, a little voice in the back of her mind urged forth the possibility that this delay in time was just what the Shirai Ryu had been angling for when she conveniently happened to let the incident with Cassie slip. _What if all of this had been planed, and even the kiss itself was a staged production?_ The end game was obviously to get Takeda back, but why go to all of this trouble for a roundabout rekindling when it seemed as if all it would take to recapture the telepath's attention was some time and a few direct approaches? _Just watching him around her, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before something happened..._

"You really aren't giving him much credit, are you?" For a moment Jacqui thought that her suspicions had manifested themselves into the very air itself - stranger had been known to happen in Outworld - but the languid scintillations cast by a three-pronged lantern shifted into sight with the closing of a secret door that immediately melted back into the stone wall, the flickering radiance of light revealing a silhouette of a rather busty woman. _Great, just what she needed - another pair of breasts to tempt Takeda._ "Wow, even in your head you cut him down?" Jacqui had the good graces to be embarrassed for that nonverbal remark, but the woman didn't seem to notice, "I wouldn't say its the same as what your boyfriend does, but I wouldn't say it's different either. I say it comes from having a cynical immortal for a father and a natural manipulator for a _mother_." The way that the woman seethed at the final word, it sounded just as dirty and spiteful as when Zyanyo spoke of Scorpion. Jacqui couldn't imagine what it must have been like to have such contempt for one of your own parents.

As irrelevant as the information was at this point, the Earthrealmer was reminded of Princess Kitana by the Edenian-esque design of the sable corset that bound not only the sheer blouse and soot-colored suspenders that would have felt at home in the Victorian-era, but a modified bustier and not much else aside from a few shining silver buckles. Unable to help herself, Specialist Briggs could only wonder how the women here were able to fight in such revealing attire without worrying about constant wardrobe malfunctions. Gathering that inquiry more from the other woman's expression than her actual thoughts this time, the masked woman dusted off her miniaturized heather bustle and answered, "Magic, tape, glue, more magic, and luck. It's not an exact science, but it's pretty close. Where else do you think Hitomi learned such diversionary tactics? It certainly wasn't her parents."

Only marginally surprised to see that the woman was familiar with the captive, captive being the nicest phrase Jacqui would think of at the moment, Briggs wondered just how well the two might have known each other, "Who are you, and how do you know her?". Hitomi could have been this stranger's friend, even a pupil of sorts judging from that last comment, or for all she knew they could have been enemies, but on the off-chance that the non-human females were close, it would be best to keep it mild. It wasn't that she was afraid of the confrontation, she had just seen the Cage family at work, and that meant a number of unnecessary issues that the SF wasn't in the mood to add to her plate.

The woman shrugged nonchalantly as if she belonged in this crypt and no one had questioned her presence there before, her short messy waves shimmering like a dirty-blonde sea of sand in the dancing light of the candle she held, eyes distant as if seeing beyond the scene. Face covered by a reinforced mask that matched the rest of her time-themed attire, Jacqui couldn't quite place where in the dark, but she could have sworn that she'd seen those eyes somewhere else before, the shape and color crying someone familiar. _Those eyes, where have I seen those eyes before_? Grilling herself and almost certain that they belonged to someone she found attractive, Jacqui thought of everyone she had met recently, going as far back as her first visit to Outworld. Those eyes... they were so steely and dark... Outlined by heavy black rings, they would have been a dead-ringer for Erron Black.

Cocking her head back as if smiling, the woman congratulated Jacqui, "Clever girl. It takes most people longer than that to catch the family resemblance, although I don't really get why. Bandage me up a bit and throw me into some of his clothes and we could pass for the same person." _The scary thing_ , Briggs thought to herself as she peered closer at the visible outlines of the woman, _was that it was true_. "Name's Emren Black. And though you didn't ask, I'll take you to see the prisoner - I have business there myself. Actually," without waiting to see if Jacqui would follow suit or not, Emren began to continue the journey down to the dungeon, long legs striding without much thought of where they were going, "I have a question or two for you, Miss Briggs. You keep trying to convince yourself that you want to believe in him, so why then are you so quick to go to that place where he's guilty?" Takeda wasn't particularly close to Emren, but she still thought of him as a good boy. "Are you just that jaded, or is it that you're afraid of really letting him get close, so you're using my sweet little sister as your alibi?" Somehow, Emren didn't sound very perturbed by that notion, merely disappointed. "Everyone's so quick to point fingers and label what they don't know or understand, but who are they to judge? Have you even asked yourself what you would think of Hitomi if Takeda wasn't in the situation? Maybe their story is more finished than you think, or maybe you're right and she is the little tramp you girls are determined her to be. Is it really fair to condemn her without knowing all the facts? Let's just say for a second that you aren't the type to play those 'what-if' games, fine, but have you even asked why Takeda dumped her in the first place?"

* * *

 **A/N** :

Yay, so many reviews to address this chapter! Having said that, I noticed a common thread that I want to hit on separately so that I don't have to repeat myself. And I'm really sorry, I literally was not even able to get on my computer at all yesterday, so please forgive the delay!

Ok, first up is pairing **Guest** (and again, thank you very much for letting me know which of you is which!)! Some very excellent points all around, but I'll try to get them in order. Being the troublemaker she is, I'm fairly certain that Cassie will have a good idea on how to handle herself (the question is, can I write that moment in a satisfying manner?). OMG, right? It's a good thing that there are only so many mind-readers in MK, or else ball-busting just might become the everyday greeting and a secondary reaction to everyone. Put simply - yes, yes is/was. Now that right there is one hell of a great question right there! And I mean just generally speaking. First off, as much as I love and quote the wikia as one of my main resources, I disagree that Kotal should be labeled as bad. Looking at how he acts and reacts the only thing that didn't sit right with me is how he just quickly came to and stuck with the conclusion that Cassie and Co. were working with Mileena and then later D'Vorah. Even in the comic, where he is a tad closer to what they might define as bad, I still wouldn't say that I personally agree "bad" is a fitting word for him. To me, Kotal should also be neutral. But potato tomato. Aside from pointing out that he's so much older than her and another species (it's not so much a matter of how accepting they are, versus more how much they'd be concerned about any possible grandchildren and how that would affect Cassie), I have to say I agree with your points about Ko'atal. Damn, I want to say that I had a really good point, but I forgot it as I was typing out that part of my reply, and worse I can't recall if it was about Kotal or Erron... Damn. Well hopefully it'll come back, but in the meantime I can just say what I think about the other side of that koin. Yes, Erron is a hired gun that has past ties with the Black Dragon, and yes he did kidnap the girls (to me that's the only thorn in the whole situation that makes that relationship hard to ship), but I think the argument could be made that both Erron and Ko'atal are killers who (and I'm less sure if its canon or not for Black), have some type of military background. So in other words, I think which of the two Sonya and Johnny would be less opposed to Cassie dating is rather up in the air and would largely come down to actions, and quite possible status. Honestly, I'm really not sure who I'd give that "victory" to... As for the basic plot of the MK X comic, I have to say that I took it as Erron kidnapped the girls on his own accord, hoping to appease the Kahn after Sonya refused to co-operate, but they only found that out after they stated to work together. Maybe that was just me though.

 **KynthiaOlympia** , as ever, my thanks! And not just for the last chapter but the one before it as well ^^

To **FanFanFiction** , you hit the topic I wish to discuss right on the head, so for the moment I just want to say thank you for the review, and that the girls always have each other's backs! Personally I really love the whole team now, although for me it took a bit to warm up to Jin.

I don't have a brother, or a twin, so in terms of that relationship I can only guess, but I think I've done reasonably well for a work of fiction. Yeah, I have a lot of fun with Zyanyo. I'm really pleased to see that you liked the last chapter. Ok, so maybe I'm always happy to see when my work can elicit a response from the readers, but my thanks stands **guest**! Well in the original summary I wrote he actually had his own blip (damn if I can remember it now), but I was barely able to have what I do with the character limit, so that was axed. The flash backs are a necessary evil, and you're not the first person to say something about them, so I've tried to cut back and alter how I do them. On the bright side of the flashbacks, I only anticipate maybe two or three more, depending on how I want to capture a certain storyline. In many ways you aren't wrong about that, but really I only know how to have so many things happening at once (which will lead into the next section).

If you want the simple, spoiler-free abridged version of why I don't put more Jacqui in the story, it's because, as much as I adore her, I doubt my abilities and tend to over-think one thing or other in my work, and in this case it's keeping Jacqui in character. I try to justify this ration by pointing out that the roughly two/three hour timing of the story limits reaction, and that in more recent chapters she's more preoccupied supporting Cassie, even if that means chewing her nails outside the door, so to speak. If you want the full version:

Jacqui. I love Jacqui (and Cassie, but that should be obvious by now), not that you'd be able to tell by the story. As a writer I tend to over-think and second guess myself at times, and unfortunately Jacqui is where that weakness of mine has chosen to display itself. So in other words, I'm so worried about how I treat her that I shove her back into the corner, thus leaving a wide margin for suffering content. That's not any kind of a way to improve my writing, I know that. Though not entirely untrue, I argue to myself that while each little blurp of hers is practice at getting more comfortable, she really doesn't need to be front and center. I say this because of timing (minus the flashbacks and some of the prison time, the first twenty chapters take place in maybe an hour and a half, possibly pushing on two hours), that there's only so much I can have the characters say, do, and think at once. Maybe it's everyone and not just me, but I find it difficult to write a cohesive sentence where person A takes many trains of thoughts at once. If you were to think about it in terms of transportation, you can't get into two or three different cars at once - you have to chose one ride, one path. Ok, so that that analogy is done, I'll return to the points I was making about how I justify being able to skimp on Jacqui. So timing makes it less of an issue, all of Cassie's drama (I'll touch more elaborately on that in a moment), and to spoil whatever mystery/assumption you may have all preconceived, Takeda is technically innocent of cheating, at least up until they get to Outworld. Should he have told Jacqui about Hitomi, yes, but so far nothing has happened between them. And speaking even more recently than the bathroom scene, Cassie's drama is so intense that even in this respite Briggs doesn't have the luxury of feeling as if she has the spare time to investigate what's up between her boyfriend and his ex. In other words, Jacqui is putting her best friend and sister before herself up until the beginning of this chapter. Ok, so that's my reasoning of why I go light on helpings of Specialist Briggs, but I think that this actually really helped to say all of this, as confusing and whatever else as it may have been.


	22. Techno for Three?

Mouth tightening into a hard line as he watched the Lin Kuei provoke his fellow Shirai Ryu, Takeda scowled at Zyanyo, finding the witnessing Shaolin little better as he offered no more help than the male twin. In truth Takahashi had never been much of a fan of the cryomancer, but for the sakes of Evren-san and Tomi, as well as out of respect for the Grandmaster, the shinobi had been polite enough to hide that sentiment; today that patience was nearing it's breaking point. Technically there hadn't been any kind of an official order given, yet common sense and decency should have dictated that it was their duty to help in any way that they possibly could so that the young woman could present her case to the Kahn with a level head. _One would think that as her brother, Zyanyo just might find it in him to care about someone other than himself_. But no, instead of doing something productive, the other two were lumbering around, laughing like a pair of jack-asses at what must have been one of the most humiliating moments of her life.

 _Thinking about it now there was no comparison, but..._ Shifting in place as he debated moving in closer for a private conference, realizing with hypocritical guilt that he wasn't exactly doing much himself in the way offering comfort or advice at this juncture, the mind-reader gazed down at his ex once more, reminded by the lion-like flyaways in her chestnut mane of the last time he had held her in his arms. With a pang he could not describe, the young ninja knew that he should not be thinking of such things, yet the thoughts and memories came all the same, bombarding the senses with vanilla and some exotic spice, the sensation of silk melting away to flesh beneath his fingertips, whispers of long-forgotten words uttered in haunting echoes, the taste of blood after a particularly daunting day of sparring. Of all the five senses one might have thought that sight would be the most powerful in repainting the picture after the hands of fate and time had done their best to wipe the canvas clean, but fittingly for the son of a blind man, it was all the other aspects of being that mattered most and left the strongest impact. Although having said that, Takeda never did forget a single detail of the first time he had seen a girl naked, of when he saw that moonlit celestial bathing in the grotto.

Exceeding the purely physical however, the Shirai Ryu was shocked at just how much he was recalling from their time together. Ordered by Evren-san herself to experience something of the modern world as training, hindsight made it rather obvious that the hellion's real intentions were not to aid in the art of blending in as she told her husband, but to encourage their budding romance. Despite the way the relationship ended, Takeda was grateful to the older woman for her faith. And for the opportunities that it afforded. _Cassie might have some clue about what it was to experiment with boundaries a tad more extreme than her hair, and something tells me that even Jin knew a thing or two about tracking down questionable locales for some face-to-lap action..._

Time could have flipped everything he knew about Tomi's playbook on it's ear, that was more than possible considering all the time that the kunoichi had spent from her father and his stern gaze, however, based on the knowledge he had on hand, if there was one area the telepath had to say that Jacqui had Hitomi beat without question in, it would be oral. If there was one thing he could say about Jacqui, it would be that while she took a bit longer to warm up than the other girls he's known, Specialist Briggs really knew how to give him what he wanted before they even got started. Hitomi, on the other side of that die, was what exactly what he would have expected from a succubus and could either stave off that final orgasm until the sun came up the following morning, or else she could Finish Him (Takeda damned both Jin and Zyanyo for putting that one in his head) in record time, which considering that they spent the majority of their relationship in secret was all too frequent an occurrence. The downside to sleeping with the hybrid was that she was insatiable by nature and demanded more than a few rounds before she was satisfied. _Too bad I can't call in a tie-breaker_ , the shinobi thought to himself as his eyes lowered to the scant protection of her dirtied yellow uniform, _Assuming that I could somehow even get them on good terms, Jacqui would never go for it_. He knew, because he once had been stupid enough to inquire as to the chances of a hypothetical three-way, and as a result had been unable to have so much as a one-way for more than a month.

Perhaps if it had really come down to it she would have had a change of heart at the last moment, but Hitomi had at least been flexible enough to play along with him when they spent one of their free days in a mall scouting out faces - and bodies - in the crowd. As anyone might have expected from a horny teenage boy that was victim to thinking with his second brain, he had picked out nothing but attractive girls; Hasashi was largely on the opposite end of that spectrum selecting other guys she thought looked cute - assuring him with each pick that she'd still choose him at the end of the day - yet she did agree with a few of his girls and even pointed out one or two she knew he'd appreciate. _It was stupid all around, but they were teenagers at time_. The excursion had ended with just the pair of them at a rather packed theater after dinner at a quaint little restaurant that had since shut its doors, but it was still a pretty good night - that was the first time they did it in a public bathroom. That was also the third time she said that she loved him.

Fingers curled around his own as the greenish steel stall wall dented beneath their combined weight, lips parted ever so slightly and just a shade shy of the creeping blush enveloping her cheeks, he could see her murmuring into his ear even now, those three little words unforgettable as the first time he heard them. "I love you". It was special even if this place was not, a secret meant just for him. Whispering it back into her lips, into her hair as she leaned her head back to bare her tender throat, into her collarbone as she shivered in the ecstasy of his touch, Takeda didn't put it together until they returned to the temple and separated for bed, but that night was also the first time that the hybrid didn't require another go. Mind barely registering the pattern at first, he realized that when when his lady love truly gave herself over to him, she didn't need to drain him because he had already fulfilled her before they had even taken their clothes off. And that was when he also realized their greatest problem as a couple.

By the time that the Grandmaster had found out that two of his best students were engaging in extracurricular activities, Takeda was already having his doubts about the future of his relationship with Hitomi, so when all of the threats had simmered down into promises and punishments, the senior ranking Shirai Ryu saw his chance. _I just wanted to know, was that so wrong?_ Initially he hadn't had it in his mind to end it that day, but between Hanzo's talk and Hitomi's reaction to everything, it had seemed like the best course of action at the time. _Was it the right thing to do though?_ Presently, he had to wonder.

"This place is boring!" Zyanyo grunted as if they were not there for any particular reason, "Urgh, I know so many better attractions to see while we wait than some moldy old dungeon! In fact," peering mischievously to his side at the equally unamused Shaolin, that perpetual permagrin returned in full force, "Jin and I should go somewhere else and have our own adventure." Speaking as if Takeda had plans to stop, or even worse, join them, the Lin Kuei caught the look on the archer's face and soothed away the notion that he was the world's worst brother, "Hitomi-hime will be fine, that annoying blonde one too, so we shouldn't have to rot down here. If this was a story, my twin would be hogging all of the juicy bits. That's hardly fair or right."

Finding the timing of it convenient as he finally came around to a place where he wanted to be alone with the fire-user, the telepath wasn't about to dissuade that idea that they depart in any fashion whatsoever. Talking would be so much easier if it were done between two close friends, not two friends, one the friend's many siblings, and his pseudo-boyfriend/another friend of the other best friend. _Right_ , that little voice of reason the back of the shinobi's mind would have snorted if it could, _talking. That's what's going to happen. And then when Jacqui shows up to tell us that Cassie's been cleared and they sees us going at it like a Nine Inch Nails song, they'll just trow off their clothes and join in the 'conversation'. Girls totally do that kind of thing every day, especially girls like your girlfriend._ If there had been a trapdoor beneath his feet, it would have opened in that moment. _By all means, be that stupid and find out what happens to guys who cheat on girls that fight in death tournaments for a living._

* * *

 **A/N** :

Some really great feedback, thank you guys again for all of this! Now it has come to my attention that once more my attempts at subtly have blown up in my face, causing my readers undue confusion! I sincerely apologize for this! In my mind I may think something is obvious (even painfully so) or even explained, but this isn't always the case as I unintentionally do the opposite and just create questions. So I want to set the record straight, but before I do that, it might be best to point out once more the fact that Evren is a succubus. But for the purposes of this story, what is a succubus? Honestly I've been shockingly bad about it and haven't sat down to chart it all out (I do that a lot for my stories), but lately - and thanks to you readers - I have put a lot of thought into it (and continue to). So no, I have no set answer as of yet, but I can give you that as a species they largely have powers to alter perceptions (hence the classic lore about sucking souls, life energy and/or dreams).

As Evren's daughter, that would make Emren (and her siblings) half succubi, which I admittedly played into her physical appearance; to balance that overtly sexual presence, Emren's abilities are more the opposite of what a succubus can do. In other words, instead of project thoughts, images, or ideas to screw with other people's heads, Emren can read what's in her foe's inner heart, which would appear as mind-reading. Also life has given her a knack for being considerably skilled at educated guesses. Honestly (again, surprisingly bad show from me not having the time line mapped out), I want to be vague with ages since I'm not positive on anyone's (minus Takeda being 23 at the time of MK X), but I'd put Evren around 700 (I am determined that whatever the number, Kitana is older) and Emren at about 500. Anywho, since I've now beat the horse of what a Hobbit is *I really couldn't pass that up* I can set the record straight of _who_ Emren is.

Emren Black is the daughter of Erron Black, from a relationship he had with Evren a hundred biljillion years ago, way before she even met Ko'atal in Shao Kahn's army. Ok, so maybe not that long ago (but seriously, I wonder how old is he really), but it was several hundred years ago. Personally when I think of that relationship, I think of the first Ghost Rider movie (with Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendez), in the very beginning when he worked at the circus or whatever. I'm not saying that the official story (if it even appears in the narrative) is going to be that same exact situation, but it would be lying if I said that it didn't influence me. Anyways just to be clear, Emren is Erron's daughter and has some resent for her mother, much like Zyanyo for his step-father (the legal one), Hitomi is Scorpion's daughter from back when he was still the wraith, Sub-Zero is Zyanyo's biological father thanks to Quan Chi (grandpa), and Haruka is Hanzo's son, born after they married. I hope that sets all of that right, and as always, feel free to question me or point out mistakes I might make along the way, as I'm sure they exist.

 **KnythiaOlympia** , as always my thanks for a prompt, encouraging review! 1), so glad I did Johnny justice, 2), super stoked I pulled Jacqui off, and 3), I ended the last chapter deliberately on that line. Actually I'm honestly surprised that that wasn't a real question I received.

To **FanFanFiction** , I'd imagine so since they're not only besties, but were practically raised together from the sounds of things. I really do appreciate the review, but that second question shall get no better answer here than *cue dramatic music* you'll see in due time. Sorry, I don't want to spoil the surprise. Unless I actually ended up putting the answer in this chapter above, in which case you'll probably know before reading this reply. If not though, soon. But really after the previous chapter, I really don't see me not putting the why in this installment.

Ah, team **Guest** , welcome back! You have my thanks as well. Do you mean content wise or update wise? Because content wise I'll be the first to throw out words like 'soap-opera' and 'drama', and as for updates, they sadly seem to be slipping further and further apart. Maybe I'm a bit biased when it comes to any and all of my OCs, but I'm glad that you're reserving judgment on Hitomi. I wish I could give you an answer for that, but honestly I'm not sure. As I've said before, my process is organic and flows, which means that I basically get an idea or two in my head and then just write from there, so some chapters I never even plan on get made, and some parts I like have to get cut since they go against the feel of the rest of the chapter/direction of the story. That is one question I would answer if I could, but I really can't.

Thank you so much, **someone**! I try to keep track of who's who, but that really helps, so thank you! I admit I had to go back and look it up to be sure, but no, that was just enough, so thank you! Yeah, that was also a problem I've heard before. I actually thought I was being kind of cleaver with that one (in my own lame, punny kind of way), thinking up a name scheme I haven't used before. I was really pleased with myself when I came up with the 'same first, third, and last letter' scheme/realization, but in hindsight I guess I really didn't think it through and think for even a moment how confusing that must be for the readers (that at the time, I wasn't really expecting I'd get). Seriously, I wish I had been cleaver enough to make Erron her brother instead of her father! As for the type of relationship they have, that I can I promise you will see. Hopefully, but that one is honestly going to be a 'wait-and-see' deal for us all. Good memory! He did say that. Again, thank you for the review!

On one final note, just to try to prevent any more confusion with my attempted subtly, I'd like to say that the full story hasn't presented itself just yet, but Takeda himself has confirmed that he did break up with Hitomi, and that it was partially at Scorpion's behest.

And also, out of curiosity, Spellweaver10, are you still with us?


	23. Striped Carnation

Sore from lower back to inner thigh from squatting in such a ridiculous position for so long on such hard, uneven ground, the kunoichi's back was also stiff from being held so unyieldingly by the chunky blocks that constituted a wall; as much as changing positions would have brought relief to her taunt body, the Shirai Ryu knew that if she didn't press herself against her inanimate lover, she would snap and toast her brother where he stood. Her mother would undoubtedly disapprove of her melting her brother to the shallow puddle he was, but Hitomi chose to believe in that moment that her father taught his daughter how to control her powers for a reason. Perhaps Hanzo's lessons weren't strictly meant to scorch any snowmen or their snowkids, but how mad would the Grandmaster really be if she were to do it? _Not very_ , she thought with a nasty glare in her twin's direction at his suggestion that he bail just to get laid, _but mom..._ With a guilty twist of the intestines, her stomach curled inwards and flips about, _I couldn't do that to her._ Not right now.

Leaching Evren's health each passing day, the illness that had befallen their mother acted at such a leisurely pace it was almost cruelly easy to forget that their mom's life was even in danger, but the truth of the matter was that she was dying. Slow acting as it was, it seemed painful for the succubus, even as Evren did her best to hide that suffering from her family. _They didn't have time for this bullshit_! She thought that, but then the half-demon would gaze out of her cell door and see him standing there at the opposite wall, tall and confident and just oozing sexuality. _Stupid boys,_ the female ninja fumed as he continued to stand there taunting her, _stupid, stupid, stupid Zyanyo_! That's right, Takeda was all of two feet off to the side and distraught enough by this convoluted series of events to take even the mildest of suggestions if the look on his face was anything to go by, and she was still glowering at her blood as if he had just done her person grievous harm.

Not allowing herself to dwell on her mother's slow-burning illness, the Shirai Ryu leered between the enhanced metal bars of her prison door at her brother, reminded of every single time Zyanyo had ever gotten her into trouble. _Was there a number larger than infinity yet, because if not I want to write in to those science guys and volunteer my brother's name, so then all I have to do is say his name and then everyone will know without having to perform any sort of equation what a pain in the ass he is! Idiot think's he's so cool since he's the bad boy, the heart-breaker, the naturally talented one, the largely favored one, the good-looking of the two._ It was one thing for Zyanyo to just view her misery from afar, but to laugh at her and then just ditch the scene altogether? That was just poor taste. Then again it really shouldn't have been very surprising to her after he left her to go be with his father. She understood wanting to meet the man that him possible, to get answers about how to use his cryomancy, to get away after she hurt him first, but now that the shoe had been put on the other foot, it really hurt that much worse. _Aside from mom, the only one who was ever there for me when I needed them was Takeda..._

 _Takeda..._ Still admittedly curious to know what it would be like to go all the way with another girl (so long as that other female was Cassie Cage), Hitomi would be lying if she said that she had absolutely no interest in her ex. Honestly this had started out as an innocent mission, just as the Grandmaster intended when foolishly risking the dice in such a split gamble, but between all of the emotion and strolls down Memory Lane off Elm St, the kunoichi also saw it has a chance at picking back up where they had left off all those years ago. _But do I really want to get back with him, or do I just want to casually hook-up, like how it started in the old days?_ Asking herself that in earnest, the hybrid had no clue if this desire was going to fizzle sooner than later, if that low, dull ache smoldering just below the belt would ignite and then go out permanently once they followed Zyan's example and got a little in the nearest closet... _Oh wait, I'm already trapped in a confined cubby! Well that solves that half of the problem_ , the wraith's daughter retorted sarcastically. Spark aside, was this magnetic pull only triggered because of how long it had been since the last time anyone had passed second, or maybe because he blind man's son was taken? It felt crude and base to blame genetics, but could it really be simpler than what she was thinking it was, that this flickering urning deep inside was merely born from the beast inside remembering what had originally awoken it?

Watching frostily as Zyan grabbed the archer by the elbow - shockingly he didn't just go for the kill and grab the other boy's dick - and dragged him from the room to the staircase, Tomi could almost see them stumbling up, her brother too eager for action to remember that while the stairs seemed a singular path, they actually split into fifty-eight different branches and secret passageways. Door practically slamming in his haste to get the monk alone so there would be at least one pair of trousers on the floor, the hybrid waited just a second longer to be sure that they were alone before addressing her peer and equal, eyes deliberately focused on his own. If, and this was a very big if, it was what she really wanted, then there was something she had to ask him, "Why did you do it? Why did you break my heart that day?"

Positive that the so-called 'adventure-seekers' had gone away to find the nearest place to shack up without needing to rely on his abilities, Takeda hesitated, still not in any particular rush to say the words. More than an unstruck match that could ignite all kinds of hidden powder kegs, saying the words out loud might do more than blur the lines of the time - giving credence to what was might just erase the barriers of what was the future, the present, and the past altogether. If he said it, if he went back to that place for even a moment, where would that lead? _No where good._

Just as determined as Hasashi was, his focus almost solely to keep his wits about him, the mind-reader stared back into her dark eyes, gathering in their staring contest that she really was a different person now, older, more mature. Without a single word spoken, he could seen beyond the caged animal and confused young adult; what he saw was a woman that was finally ready to fight for what she wanted, _If she could actually figure out what that was_. "You know why," body and mind equally unconscious of the fact that it was happening even as it transpired, Takahashi suddenly found himself standing just outside of her cell, hands pressing against the bars that divided them, "I was visited by the Grandmaster. You did the rest."

 **The Shirai Ryu Temple, Evren's Flower Garden, Too Many Years Ago...**

Color bursting and bleeding together like a living firework show, the polychromatic blooms had become a favored place to seek tranquility for many a struggling soul, and for the few couples that stepped foot in the sphere of serenity, it was a very romantic setting. Hardly a secret, it was known that the Grandmaster's wife had spent every day tending the bantam eden, even up until the week she would give birth to the son they would spend years trying for; what less were aware of was the fact that the succubus had planted the first seeds shortly after she had brought her two children to the realm she had grown up in. Both Hitomi and Zyanyo had helped their mother slave in the soil, but flowers just weren't their thing.

At this late hour beneath the milky crescent moon, most of the Shirai Ryu and hopefuls in the dinning hall for dinner, one might expect to see the Grandmaster and his spouse in this lovely scene captured straight from a child's fairytale, but not tonight. Tonight, the gardener and her muse were undoubtedly still back inside his study, quarreling over his decision to split the kids up and send their daughter away, or else in the dojo speaking the same with their fists - for so many reasons, that was probably for the best.

Crickets and other insect life filling the chilly night air with a symphony all their own, the temperature itself was no different than it usually was in this protected mountainscape, but that suited the pair of kids ambling through the foliage, eyes only seeing so much of the splendid greenery. Any other time they might have revealed in this time, spending ten percent of the walk gazing upon Evren's hard work, another fifteen or so talking and playing it cool, the final five collecting themselves and any lost articles, and the brunt of that hundred would be all hands. But tonight... Tonight was different for everyone.

Awkward as they both knew that the Sword had already fallen upon their heads and cut the threads of their shared fate, neither of the teens were in much of a lovely-dovey mood. As Hanzo's daughter - nay, his only child - Hitomi didn't think it was especially fair that her old man should send her away but keep the boy that wasn't even blood. Takeda had already been granted all of these long years to be with Scorpion, and she so little! Neither of them knew it at the time, but a part of that decision was made so that the Grandmaster could keep his word to Kenshi and keep an eye on Takeda. It could not be said that Hanzo Hasashi was not a man of his word.

"How was it?" Curious as the lass was to know what exactly her dad had had to say to her boyfriend, Hitomi struggled to play it off like her brother would, all casual and nonchalant. Burned before and on the brink of believing that her own father had chosen his 'son' over her, a part of Hitomi had honestly been praying even as they roamed that the administrations were brusque and along the lines of how much he loved his biological child. Zyanyo really wasn't wrong for mocking how much the teenage Tomi worried about what her father thought. "He didn't chew your ass too bad," there was no masking the eagerness in her voice, the raw hope, "did he? I bet he did."

Bearing in mind that his girlfriend could be rebellious in her independence from her twin, and as a consequence be highly insecure when it came to any of the male members of her family, Takeda did well to also remember that he had grown up with Hanzo and she had only known him for a short time now. "It wasn't anything I couldn't handle. If Evren-san hadn't been there to calm him down, I think I might have come back a head shorter." Nothing, not even a titter. _Tough crowd._ "Really it was fine."

"Oh."

Gazing upwards at the sky above, lost for a long moment in the enormity of it all, the way the scattering of silver stars gravitated and bent for the moon made the apprentice think of Hitomi, of how she tried so hard to please everyone. Lost in the heavens, he couldn't begin to fathom how a girl as pretty (if not somewhat boyish) could be so thirsty for love and acceptance, or how such a kind heart could be so resistant to what he was offering. Maybe it was a bit much, but if they really loved each other, shouldn't that have been enough? It was never of question of if she loved him or not - it was a matter of if she could fully give in to that feeling. _"_ Tomi," Takeda attempted to reach for his paramour's hand only for her to yank it away; that was disappointing but not entirely unexpected, "have you thought about what I asked?"

"Takeda, I..." At a loss for words, the teen stopped in her tracks and became very busy all of a sudden with a striped carnation, twirling the stem between her index and thumb after plucking it. For as long as she could remember, Hitomi had been the second fiddle, or at best the more serious and reliable one. Her brother, mother, step-father, the royal babysitters, it hardly mattered who it was, as they all expected the same patient, understanding, sober routine from the girl. _All of them, except for Takeda_. He got her, and he had never once requested anything from her that she wasn't already prepared to give him. At least that was true, until he started to get on his kick about them getting more serious. She loved him and he knew it, so what else did he want?! _Oh, that's right..._ "I do love you, but we're not anywhere close to being adults yet, so why are you asking this of me?"

Contemplating her as sternly as the Grandmaster himself had the man been present, maybe even more so, the couple could feel the final fracture of their relationship crumbling as they continued, the foundations giving way to dust and ruin, "You need to grow up someday, Hitomi." _Rich words coming from me._ "I just need to hear you say that you won't heed the Grandmaster this time, that we won't keep us a secret anymore." As hot as the secrecy could be, the shinobi was done with it. "I need you to promise me, or else this isn't going to work." Naive as it was at this point, Takeda still held out hope that there was a chance they could survive this. Watching her grasp the meaning of his words, whatever confidence he had in that wish withered and died.

Aghast and scarcely able to believe it, she dropped her carnation on the cold ground underfoot, forgetting it almost straight out the gate, "You're giving me an ultimatum?! Really?!" Solemn as the grave and twice as optimistic, the future telepath nodded his head, prompting her to shake hers, "You want to stuff me into a box too? I told you when we first started seeing each other that I didn't mind the small labels, so long as you understood that I just wanted this to be casual. You knew going in what this was for me." As beautiful as love was, the kunoichi had seen the dark side of its influence at work as well; besides, who would ever want the silver medal? Hitomi had always liked Takeda, but never in her wildest dream would she have thought that their skinny-dipping excursion would lead them here. "I'm the one that has to play mom and watch out for everyone, it's always been that way for me. You know that. I told you that falling in love with you was a mistake, even if it was one I'd happily repeat, but no, you told me that it didn't have to change anything. Now you tell me that I have to agree to an engagement or else lose you for good? This isn't about my dad or you," she decided with a frown, eyes growing wet at the corners, "it's a test. Well I guess I fail, since I want to keep one area of my life where I don't have to conform."

* * *

 **A/N** :

So many notes! It almost makes me want to bust out into some PotO, but I won't. Anyways, I'm really glad to see how much love my fic is getting! You guys rock! Yep, nod to Freddy, but not the Fake! I realize that the Shirai Ryu are located in the Himalayas, but I imagine that it's a fairly adaptable range, one that's probably guarded by mystical means. And if it's not in the actual canon, then we can rest assured that the resident demon/sorceress cast spells that would allow a garden to grow, among other things.

And just to clarify why Takeda and Hitomi broke up: Takeda wanted her to give in to her love all the way, not only so often, so he asked her to commit in the form of a proposal; while Hitomi was ok with the label of being his girlfriend, she was scared of committing to something more serious. Highly insecure at the time, and dealing with her family drama and just how she was perceived in general, she would occasionally act out. That lead to Takeda and her becoming a common hook-up, which quickly deepened before that same attitude that brought them together tore them apart. So in other words, it was fear and pressure, but he was the one who ultimately called it curtains.

 **KynthiaOlympia** , for the record if I ever spell that wrong, I'm really sorry! Pretty sure I haven't, but just in case (plus I feel as if saying that jinxed myself). I wanted to thank you once more for the winged review, it really boosts my efforts that much more! As a writer, I always find it good to get into the heads and hearts of all kinds of characters, even those that are completely different from what/who I am.

Again, thank you guys so much for helping me keep everyone straight! **Team idea guest** , gotta say thanks, and he really is just awesome^^

 **Someone** , I have no clue when Erron was born. I want to say that I came across something somewhere that implied he knew/suspected Ko'atal's involvement in Earthrealm, but that barely remembered bit very well could have been something I read in a fic. It actually really bothers me that we know so little on the ages of the characters (I like that sort of info), but more than that, that I just kind of dreamed up Emren and his part in the story without considering the timeline at all. As I was asked for a flashback - I would have been remiss to fail to deliver on that request! - I kept the previous chapter intentionally vague to allude to the cause. So you're right in that Takeda wants to re-board the ex-press, but no, that was not why he broke up with her. I think that there is more empathy between the characters than appears on the surface. "Closer", yes! Love that song! There is not. And I never did say that he wouldn't have to say farewell to the boys either ^^

To avoid spoilers, all I can say to that is that I believe that if Takeda didn't love Jacqui in some way, things would be different. But personally, **1 Guest Pair** , I still like Takeda too. Although I don't think my opinion counts much here. Yours does though, so thank you for sharing it ^^


	24. Knock, Knock

Descending for what seemed an eternity and left with a lot to mull over, Jacqui was silent as a church mouse as her guide hummed a sad-sounding tune under her breath, neither female actually saying a single word until Emren suddenly came to a stop. Nearly tumbling into the elder of the two at the unannounced refrain, Specialist Briggs caught her footing at the last possible second, frowning softly at the Cowboy's daughter. "What is it? Are we here?" Jacqui had every intention of going through with it, but now that she was potentially just outside of the room, she was frightened of what she might see on the other side of that door.

Tilting her head closer to the splintery rotted wood for a better listen, the succubus-mortal cocktail took a considerable pause to eavesdrop, a naughty little smirk lighting up beneath her mask as she painted a mental picture of one body pressed against the side of the wall, another down on their knees in the untiled dirt, both panting heavily. "Hmm? Oh, no, we're not there yet. Someone's having sex in there." Hands out and palms flat against the choppy vertical surface, Emren forced her ear closer into the door so that there was no sound she couldn't make out. Allured by the moans of mounting pleasure and tempted to chance taking a peek on the other side, she could almost feel the sheen of melting sweat on skin, the warmth radiating off the couple and through the door. "Sounds intense in there. I'm jealous."

"Jealous?" Setting aside the horrifying statement of the other woman, Jacqui was protestingly prescribed another unhealthy vision of Takeda and Hitomi in some dark cell that resembled a sex den more than a prison, alone and naked in each other's arms, hands and mouths and legs everywhere. The thought of his lips on hers sent a pang jolting throughout her body as they lingered just outside. "How could he do that to me...?" Ration fleeing in the girl's mind as her first thought naturally jumped to her boyfriend and his ex, it didn't immediately occur to a blindsided Briggs that even if Takeda was shaking back up with that tart, they would have had to break her out of the holding cell to rendezvous in the closet. Or whatever the hell that room was.

If her dad had been there at that moment, he would have jumped into that cubicle without an inch of hesitation, killed the pair of them, and then brought his daughter back the remains for closure, and if her mom had been there, Vera would have wrapped her arms protectively around her little girl while Jax worked. General Blade would have counseled her soldier to ask if the creep was worth it, and if he was, then do what had to be done before the papers came in from the courts. As her Aunt Sonya, the advice pretty much would have been the same. Mr. Cage, cleaning away all of the horrible jokes, would have told her that she had two choices in the matter: One, she could break down and cry about it, or two, she could do something about it and take her destiny into her own hands. That was probably a line borrowed from one of his movies, but it was actually a good recommendation.

One that she meant to take. Glad that she had remained armed for situations such as these, the farmer's daughter flexed her fingers before balling her fist up; whatever came next, Specialist Briggs had every intention of breaking that door down, and maybe even some bones while she was at it, "Move." Gathering the younger woman's meaning without needing to be told twice, Emren took a few steps back, thought better of it, and scurried around to hide behind the next kink in the wall. "Knock, knock," Jacqui slammed her hand through the door, shattering it to pieces.

It wasn't Takeda on the other side of that door; there wasn't a girl either, but to Jacqui's credit there was a serious bitch in dire need of a good slapping. Covered in opaque layers of grimy gray snow-like dust and not much else, the debris from the explosion of old wood and rusted metal had coated the pair so for a moment they seemed more like living statues than familiar faces, but once they got their mouths working there was no mistaking their identities. Outraged, shocked, and frankly humiliated at being caught in such undignified positions, Zyanyo and Jin blinked at each other before staring out at the source of the interruption, both boys quick to squawk and shoo her away so that they could get dressed. Well, maybe not straight away...

"Excuse you!" Crimson cheeked and short of breath from what he was just doing, the standing Shaolin hastily turned away from the woman and yanked his pants back up so that she couldn't see any more of him than she needed to, but not before Emren poked her head into the frame to get a look at who was having such a good time. _Not too bad_ , her eyes seemed to twinkle, _too bad he's gay_.

Not yet in the position he wanted to be with the archer, the cryomancer was determined that they would at least finish what they had started here, so he remained crouched on his knees as to not have to worry so much about being seen, abashed that of the two girls, one of them just so happened to be his sister. Perhaps growing up with a twin sister, he was less modest than he ought to be. "Get the fuck outta here, you fucking pervs!" Disgusted by their lack of shame or even contrition, Zyanyo pointed his hand in their direction until the skin glowed a bright icy-blue and was covered by sharp crystalline shards, "'Specially you, Emren-sary!". Sealing a thin layer between them to act as a screen, the sheet was thick enough to act as a satisfactory door, but thin enough to be kicked down later.

Once the entrance had been blocked off by his ice, the Lin Kuei turned back to the monk and eyed the unfastened leggings as if they were made to be ripped away, _which really, they were_ , "Now that they have a minute to cool down, why don't we continue?" Concerned that maybe the bowman wouldn't be so keen to carry on after that little scene, Zyan smirked up at him as he tugged on the hanging strands of his loose bandages, pretending to be collecting them so that he could fix the off-white length since they were 'done', "Unless you want to turn bluer than my father's colors."

* * *

 **A/N** :

You seriously rock, **KynthiaOlympia** , for not only reviewing so fast after I post the chapter, but for listening to my half-asleep ramblings. Seriously, kudos!

It disappoints me that everyone hates Hitomi, but it is what it is. Jacqui's just a mature kind of girl, at least that's how I've always seen her. Still though, I really do appreciate the review **Team idea guest**!

Thank you, **celticank**. I do try to update as fast as I can, but life isn't always as generous as we'd like.

Honestly **1 Guest Pair** , I have to confess that that was more of an oversight on my part and carelessly worded. The intention of the rest of Hitomi's statement is what I meant, but when I was working I didn't stop to think about how harsh that line was. I really don't know how I missed that one, because you're absolutely right about how fucked that is.

Emren-sary, as in emissary, as in she spies a lot. A short chapter, obvi, but I stand by it, just like I stand by the overly long ones as well.


	25. Common Ground

Seated upon the throne and posed in deep contemplation, the Kahn called Erron back into the room after Cassie had been allowed to depart; she hadn't said anything directly, but he had a good impression that the blonde would have a good few things to say to the other girl when they met to trade places. And when he said blonde, he really meant her fists. Perhaps he aught to have sent Reptile or Ermac to accompany the women after all, but it was their prerogative to settle their scrabbles between them, and in such a manner as they chose. Still though, odds were that the General wouldn't take very kindly to the news of her daughter's woes, and if indeed they were able to bring her back from the brink, something told the Osh-Tekk that Evren wouldn't be particularly happy with him either. He could almost hear her voice as she chided him, _'I don't care if you're the emperor and have to set an example, that girl was your daughter once! Things may have changed, but Hitomi and Zyanyo will always be your children.'_

"Emperor." Ever a man of so many words, by way of greeting the outlaw inclined his head just enough so that his eyes were lost behind the brim of his hat. Mayhap it was prudence or respect that drove the announcement of his arrival from the back, but whichever it was, the war god accepted with an idle wave of the hand. A smart enough man to read the signs, the cowboy had little trouble in surmising the cause of these summons; Erron was gracious enough to never mention it, for which the Kahn had been monetarily grateful when such instances had previously occurred, but the truth was that they had more in common than one might have guessed. _If his presence had been requested, it only could have been for one thing_. "Hell of a reunion on our hands."

Ko'atal never cared much to recall that they had a common past that bonded them, _Or rather complex ties to the same she-devil, attachments that were too deep to completely sever_ , however just this once it may have been to their benefit to bring it to light. It was not strictly orthodox for the Osh-Tekk to admit in these kind of personal matters, but the truth was that even an Emperor needed assistance. That may have sounded strange given the advisers he put so much faith into, at least prior to D'Vorah's betrayal, but there was a difference between matters of guiding the entire realm and, as Cassandra might have put it, 'tip-toeing over thin ice'.

Debating for a moment if he should raise for this audience or remain seated, Outworld's monarch chose to linger in the throne he and his followers - again, he could feel the slow-healing sting of the Kytinn's actions - had fought so hard to obtain, keeping it his prerogative to change his mind later if he so wished. The more problematic deliberation, however, came in the form of whether or not he should bring Emren into this conversation, and if so, how to tread - Erron may have remained loyal for the money, and perhaps even in some small way, the cowboy had developed a genuine interest after all the time they worked together, but there was no question as to where his daughter stacked in terms of priority.

"Yes, that is as good a way to surmise the situation as any other I suppose." Treading cautiously up to the edge of that frozen lake, Kotal took his first tentative step. "I believe that we can assume Emren has heard the news that her half-sister was taken in for questioning and is currently on her way for a visit? I was under the impression that the girls were always fairly close, or is bond that a new development?" Honestly that was less playing coy and more the smudge of time passing for a being that was simply so old that time mattered less and less in most regards.

Sensing not quite a trap, Erron felt as if he knew where the Emperor was trying to steer the conversation. Sure, he could have just told his employer that no matter what he had told her growing up about why her mother wasn't there, Emren had resented the woman for abandoning them. Hard as it was at times to juggle work and parenting, the sharp-shooter knew how much the succubus loathed herself for stepping out of the picture. It was also true that he also could have gone into how the first-born had taken the news that she was going to be a big sister, that the girl had lit up like the flashiest Fourth of July fireworks Earthrealm had, at least at first, but when she learned that their mother had intended to keep this one herself... Well, let's just say that he had found a treasure trove of evidence that would have made a shrink's day and the law's worst nightmare.

Frankly there was a lot that Erron could have said to that, but he chose to keep it clean. "It's fairly new."

Not that the Kahn was expecting any different from the gunman - after the wounds that traitor had inflicted, a large part of the Osh-Tekk was relieved that the mercenary had remained unchanged, prickly as he was wont to be - yet apparently this would not be a simple as he might have dared to hope. "Is that so? Hmm," Ko'atal reflected, _perhaps I am not the only one still suffering due to that demoness; thinking of the distance of her son and coupling it with this revelation, was it possible that both of the cryomancers and the girl could share in the woe as well? Perhaps this sudden illness of her's was years of contrition and pain, the force of Karma at work at long last_. "I do not know if you know this already, but Emren came to me not that long ago for a consultation. She noted how serious it must have been if a certain Shirai Ryu had been recalled home, how dire the circumstances had to be if they had indeed sought a team to come here for the ingredients. She asked me personally not as an emperor but as a man that had known Evren once if I thought that this was going to be her end." Erron was stoic, not moving so much as a muscle at the implication that the hellion might truly die. To Kotal, that stillness spoke a fair deal of what the outlaw might have been thinking. "I told her the truth, that the elixir they intend to make her is usually a desperate last attempt, that while it was possible to brew, its effects were more fable and legend."

Not sure if he should be cross at the Emperor for being so blunt in a delicate situation or if he should be grateful that the man was honest with a hard truth, Erron wasn't positive what he felt. Naturally the cowboy had kept an ear out for any sort of news about the mother of his daughter, so he had discovered sooner than later that Evren's health had taken a grim turn, that she had taken to bed, but he knew the woman to be a stronger sort of female, so her mystery ailment seemed a hoax at best, a short-term issue at worst. And then Hasashi himself had ordered his daughter to return to the temple they inhabited. To him, that was the first nail in the coffin. Then discovering that they wanted to chance making _that_ potion... _I didn't want to think it was true._

Neither accusing nor brimming over with a sense of relief that he had been spared a terrible talk, the words did make the Emperor's point emerge at last, "You told Emren that her mother was as good as gone." So at least now that explained why the Kahn was dragging his heels in greeting the kids and entertaining this farce of a mission, because he was convinced that it was a fool's errand, that Evren was past the point of knocking on death's door, that she was virtually invited into the parlor for tea and was just stating to make herself at home. "We both know that Evren's a tough one." But then again, was it really the succubus's fate that had the Osh-Tekk concerned, or was it something else?

As much as he would have liked it to have been something else, it was the demoness's life that had Kotal Kahn on the edge of his seat, so to speak. "There were few who could match our unit when we served together," despite the way those glowing orbs seared, there was no mistaking the fond memory of carnage behind them, "so it is not her prowess in body that has me anxious." Ko'atal did not want to speak it aloud, but it was her emotional stability and mental endurance that troubled him, and that wasn't even including the truly traumatic experiences they shared as man and wife - before they realized how... _compatible._.. they were, the impling had been interested in another of their peers.

Maybe it was something about guys with dark hair and ponytails, but she had initially been drawn to the Edenian, Rain. Good as friends as they were at the time, Ko'atal was just contented that it wasn't Reiko that had her eye. At any rate, the demi-God had spurned her advances - a feat that, where it not born from such an inflated sense of self, it might have been admirable - proving himself to be so vain and in no need of a 'lowly orphan without a home and a future' that he was immune to the charms of the succubus. _Evren had taken that rejection rather hard_ , the Kahn recalled with a suggestive smirk, _several times that night_. The torrid details of the tryst aside, she really didn't cope well at the time with the dismissal, nor was she much better at it when the twins had brought them back together. Not caring to count the tears, when he closed his his eyes, he could still see her laying on her half of the room behind a gossamer veil, the sounds of her misery captured in his mind just as sharply as the sounds of her wresting her own one-handed pleasures, all of it for just one man.

Refusing to think of that, the Emperor shook the past away and focused instead on the subject before him, "Be thankful Erron, that your courtship was so fleeting that you never had to experience what it is to lose a child with her." The miscarriages were bad enough, but there was no pain close that could ever rival what it was to have your own son dead in your arms. It still haunted the Osh-Tekk, even to this day.

Quiet as he was deadly, Erron Black gazed up at the other man from his high seat, only four words on his lips, "You think so, Emperor?"

* * *

 **A/N** :

And again another example of needing mindsoap, lol. Seriously though **1 Guest Pair** , what's with the question mark after awkward? Of course I read the review! I always check the reviews (when I'm obsessively focused on one story). I have to say, that last chapter really is a perfect example of how people can see one event (or whichever) in different lights than one another. Like I said before, I really have no idea how I missed how mean that was. Timing can be a pain, I get that.

 **KynthiaOlympia** , I will always thank a review when it comes! Maybe I'll sing a different tune for when it's a negative remark, but until then I am full of gratitude, to you, and to all of the other reviewers!

I know that this first review actually came from the previous chapter, but since that's already been posted I'm addressing it here. **Someone** , that's a really good point to decide to not like a character. Honestly, as hard as it is, I've accepted that Hitomi is an unliked character, but to hear at this point that anyone can find her to be neutral in their books means a lot to me. And for the latest chapter, yeah, Zyan's pretty great. Little bit, yeah.

Whichever way you meant, I'll take it **celticank** ^^

Acknowledgments aside, I must confess that this is me taking more liberties with the timeline. I think I read/heard somewhere that Rain served in Shao Kahn's army, but I have no clue if he ever worked alongside Reiko and Kotal. Reading the comic I'd say that the three clearly did work together whilst serving Mileena, but I'm talking way way before she was ever cooked up. Honestly I'm not really sure what to make of Rain, but I do kinda like him (seriously, there are only of MK characters that I don't like in some fashion or other), so none of that was meant to be slander. I just wanted to show that A), not everyone Evren meets is into her (example one and a half being Sub-Zero), and B), it is possible to resist a full-fledged pure-blood succubus!

Man, I really have no idea what to title this chapter! I liked E4, but Common Ground sounds a hell of a lot better I think.


	26. Ice, Ice, Baby

Voices hushed in the asphyxiating silence weighing in around them like an old snow globe who's confines were only shrinking with the ticking hands of Chronos, the entangled pair of Shirai Ryu were so fixated upon the other as they peered beyond the void, they were unsure of when it exactly happened. Palm-to-palm, noses nearly brushing as the invisible mists of CO2 expanded between the duo, the only things between Takeda and Hitomi in that moment was the aforementioned personification's dominion, as well as the cold metallic cell of their prisons. Technically speaking the kunoichi was only one that was incarcerated, however... Baring the metaphor of the shinobi's situation, the two could only gape at the other for what seemed an eternity.

Lips right there for the taking, it was doubtful that there would ever be an easier steal for either ninja, and yet there was still something nagging the would-be couple as they contemplated their next obvious move, the battle not so much as to obtain the objective but to take that final step towards it. _Things weren't great at the end, and now he had found a good thing, so what did that make all of this?_ Tomi tentatively thought as the itch was becoming more than she could bear, some part of her seeing not the first and last boyfriend she had known but the best friend she had known as a teen. _Surely this hesitation was a sign that they shouldn't... And yet nothing would have been better in that moment._

 _Ugly was a kind way to put their demise,_ the mind-reader recalled their split with a cringe that was only too transparent, yet at the same time he could not begrudge the adverse motivation fully, as Takeda had since put it in the past were it belonged and trooped onwards, making a place for himself in the world, a name that would be remembered by future Shirai Ryu. As much as it hurt at the time, he saw now that the Grandmaster separating them had done a world of good in making his efforts remotely manageable. Harsh but no less true, he knew in his gut that if he had stayed with Hitomi it would have spelled the end of his ambitions. At least, that was all true back then, but now that they were older and she was more mature, the two of them grown in every way that mattered, what once would have led to a downwards spiral now seemed to hold some level of potential. _This is crazy! What are you thinking, Takeda?!_

Whatever his mind had come back with in response to that inquiry, his body was certainly letting the world at large know his final decision - closing what remained of the space between them, he could suddenly taste the honey mixture she applied since before they met. Substantial and reinforced to hold back even the strongest, the bars were far enough apart that finding the proper leverage was a small matter. Rushed, the lip-lock broke apart just as suddenly, and he could read the question shining in her brown eyes without having to hear it, _So what now? Do we steal a moment to see where this goes, or...?_ Blinking back at the far end of her cell with distaste, it was apparent that she didn't savor that notion in the slightest, but for him she would attempt it. _What should we do?_

 **Meanwhile, X-amount of stairs away...**

Salivating and misty-eyed at what she glimpsed of Kung Jin, Erron's daughter had decided on her own accord without any input from the Earthrealmer that they would wait for the boys to join them, which led Jacqui to question why she had foolishly agreed to remain at the scene, for whatever psychotic reason. Pretending that that didn't just happen, and that the sketchy sounds coming from behind the ice door was just another attack on her sanity, Briggs wondered if maybe she wasn't lingering out of memories of Cassie, or rather habit, as the term memory made the farmer's daughter think that maybe Cass wasn't going to be so lucky this time. Seriously though, this was exactly the sort of situation that Cage would get them into (and had before in the past), and being the kind of girl that the blonde was, Specialist Briggs was positive that the Sarge would remain just to give the guys shit. _Maybe I need new friends..._

"I wonder if your intrusion made 'im nervous." Jacqui didn't get the sense that Emren had paid the smallest attention to the fact that her brother had just iced them out and threw some serious shade her way, so it was unlikely that the older female would pay attention to the incredulous stare on her face. "If it were me, I'd just keep going through it, and if you wanted to just stand there watching, that'd be your choice. I guess that's the difference between a Shaolin though, they're just more prudish than you or I." _No_ , Briggs shook her head internally, _just no_. "Still though, I'm curious to know what the Temple's stance on sex is these days. I mean, do you think they'd allow this sort of thing? If I were all holy, I'd say that getting sucked off in a closet would be a no-no, but since I'm not..." Em grinned wolfishly at her own words, "Sounds like it'd be a good day to me."

 _Just shoot me now_. Standing outside the hole in the wall she herself had made, a little to the side if truth be so that she didn't have to risk seeing the shimmering shadows and shifting shapes beyond, Jacqui fought off a creeping blush as things came to a close in the next 'room', or maybe they were only heating up, Emren's beam broadening. Either way, the beauty was looking anywhere else than at the cupboard, _this is not happening, this is not happening, this is so not-_

"This is so happening, you fucking bitch!" Screaming at the top of her lungs as she flew down the stairs at break-neck speeds, there was no mistaking a Cage's mouth shooting off a mile away, and this sounded a lot closer to their location than that. While both females actually heard the blonde's arrival before they saw it, Cassie was on them before anyone really could process what the hell was happening, her form looming closer and closer as she recklessly took the descent three stairs at a time. "It... It's so on!" Military training counting for less with each step (the pangs in Jacqui's calves could personally attest to that), it was more than easy to surmise by her heavy panting that Cass had run the entire way. Clutching a stitch in her side, the blonde's next breath indicated that she was more than ready to just collapse, "Man, how many more fucking floors are there?! Fuck!" Finally catching sight of the two woman, Cassie stumbled to a stop, landing almost perfectly in her best friend's arms. "Oh, hey Jacqui."

Rolling her soft brown eyes at her sister's cheerful dramatics, the other girl allowed the blonde to catch her breath before forcing her to stand up properly, deciding that under the circumstances, introductions were in order. _It's only a matter of time before she notices Zyanyo's handiwork, but that doesn't mean I have to give her the chance to_. "Cass, this is Emren Black, Emren, this is Cassie Cage. Emren is the older sister of the twins."

Of that, all Cassie heard was that the stranger's last name was Black. "Black? As in the Cowboy?" Peering almost critically at the outlaw's offspring, Cage surveyed her bestie's new acquaintance seeing the slightly paler flesh and tits that subtracted from this so-called Emren being a dead-ringer for her father. Although if Erron were a woman, Cage made up her mind on the spot, this model would have been hotter. "Sister, you said?" Cassie thought back to the kiss that Hitomi had planted on her, realizing the hard way that there was something seriously strange about that family, like on a genetic level.

Reading the General's daughter, Emren cast her own net to gather intelligence on this new arrival. "Oh my, you really did enjoy that smooch, didn't you?" Perhaps that was a tad more intimate than what she normally would have sought after, but sometimes when a certain thought or emotion was so close to the surface, it was a daunting task to see around such a personal matter. From what she could glean, Hasashi was all over the place in controlling her abilities. "Tomi really isn't the best when it comes to controlling her blood-given 'gifts', but in her defense, I think they can really take a while to understand. Unless like Zyan, you happen to be a prodigy. Lucky bastard."

Flabbergasted at the exchange, and even more so that the woman would be so quick to push her sibling under the bus like that, Cassie frowned, "So what, are you some kind of mind-reader or something? Or are you just a classic man-hater? What's your deal?" Jacqui could have cried at that invitation, knowing what kind of strange response that Emren would have for that.

"Nope," the dirty-blonde shook her natural curls, "Not a telepath like Takahashi - I can just see what lurks below the surface of your mind. It comes with me being a succubus, being blessed enough to have the powers in reverse." As if that settled things, her attention was drawn back to the door as the barrier began to thin out, the smirk returning as it was thawed completely and the two boys joined the party, "Speak of the devil, you two have a good time in there?" Moving to stand next to her maternal sibling, the hybrid pointed at her chin, "I think you missed a spot."

* * *

 **A/N** :

Wow, only a month in and this story has 25 chapters, over 3,000 views, and 52 reviews?! Snap! Have I told you guys (readers, waiters (as in followers), and subscribers too) how much you rock, how this would not have happened without you guys?! Honestly as I write this thank you out, the last chapter was too soon out the door for there to be a review, but I know that I can count on **KynthiaOlympia** , and most probably **Team guest idea** , **1 Guest Pair** , and **someone**! You're new to the party, but hopefully I'm not wrong in thanking you prematurely **celticank**!

Like I said **Team Pair Guest** (is the order of that changing, or am I just on crack? lol), I made the whole name scheme of Evren and Emren without thinking how confusing that would be, so mistakes are bound to happen. I just hope that for my part, it isn't anyplace too awkward... Honestly I haven't really thought much about Em's relationships with the other characters, but yeah, that could be interesting! As for Cass, I'm not saying where all the romance is pointing, but being single is definitely something I'd expect to see if I were you guys. Seriously though, everyone is jacked and needs to take a step back, or at least the main characters. And as for the first comment, I saved that for last for a reason! Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! A million times over, thank you!

 **Someone** , I really wasn't thinking of it in terms like that, but that isn't wrong. Like I said, succubus or no, not everyone is gonna want a piece - beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yay, I wasn't! And thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it! Well personally **celticank** , I attribute that working relationship to two things: One, they're both super old (surely we can agree on that much), so I imagine that they'd have time to accept it, not to mention neither had ended up with Evren; Two, I can see them both being fairly professional sorts who would think of what they're getting out of it and weigh the benefits against pride. Maybe if she had picked one of them, things might be different, and it's also possible that I'm giving them too much credit, but I don't think so in this case.

I thought about what I said at the beginning of this address, and I hope that you, that no one really, thinks that I take these marvelous discussions for granted. These back-and-forths mean a lot to me, and I just want to express how grateful I am for each and every review! So in other words, thank you **KynthiaOlympia**! Now so everyone can curse me for being so vague, I'll repeat myself and say that a 'Vs. Hitomi' chapter is just around the corner! Eventually. *evil grin*


	27. At Your Expense, or Blood vs Ice

Self-conscious enough to forget for a moment that that section of his countenance was obscured by layer upon layer of decorative bandages, Zyanyo still wasn't dumb enough to fail into the pervert's trap like Hitomi would have, so the Lin Kuei thought to use his head and glanced over at the archer before he started to rub at his face. Jin shook his head, so unless he was cruel enough to be in on the joke after what the Cryomancer had done for him, there was nothing there to worry about. Having said that, the mere presence of his elusive older sister was more than a cause for concern, as he didn't know her that well, and she was the sort that would just say stupid shit for the hell of it.

"Em." Curt, he ignored her jibe like the professional his Grandmaster had taught him to be. _What, like it was his father's fault that he rarely listened and applied the teachings?_ "I see you crawled out of your snake's den."

As sharp a shot as her father and partial namesake since before she could walk, the immortal secondary didn't always need a bullet to hit her mark, "Only after you started the trend, little brother." There was some part of her that felt badly for what she was about to say, the greater fraction of that unspoken apology aimed more for the bowman than her kin admittedly, "Too bad my tunnels can't take wyrms half as big as your hole can accept."

 _Oww, burn_! Cassie had the feeling she was going to like this one, _Too bad Emren can't be the one on our team_. "I think the lady has spoken, so we can cue that chorus from..." She was about to hit them all with a Yo Momma style joke, but as they shared a mother and the woman was currently dying, that seemed in bad taste to the blonde, so she refrained. _For the moment_. "The Bitch in the Pink Satin Dress." Yeah, that one probably went over their heads, or half of them at any rate, "If she's too busy running from would-be rat-murderers, I think I know a good substitute though. Jin, do you know if your mom is available?"

Cracking a smile at that, Jacqui saw it as payback for him always finding new and exciting ways to bring up her dad's days as a revenant. Zyanyo, who was nowhere near as lost as his twin - or their older sister for that matter - was when it came to pop culture, got the joke; the Lin Kuei was merely too steamed about Emren's remark to pay Cage and her 'clever' words any attention. Originally born in Earthrealm like her dad, living in Outworld for most of her life didn't lend any help to grasping her heritage and it's so-called wit, so in other words, Emren naturally didn't understand the set-up, but the punchline couldn't have been any more clear. Jin, being the butt-end of the joke, was not particularly happy with the Sarge for that crack, but he did have to concede that it could have been so much worse, especially after what he had just come back from doing...

In too good a mood to let even Cassie ruin it, Jin opted to take the highroad this once, "Jeez Sarge, I would have expected better from you." _More or less_. "I think that your head isn't in the game today. Too busy thinking about jumping ships once you settle the score?" There was no mystery between them as to whom he was referring, or even what sort of ship he meant, "It's a pretty bold tactic, Cage. You sure you can handle playing that kind of grown-up game?"

"Who cares about Blondi-locks and her three stooges!" Still deeply frazzled by his own blood's horrid and unfounded implications, the cryomancer pointed his index finger right into her chest with the full intent to duel, a part of him suddenly missing his twin since she had never caused him this much woe in their time together. "Take it back! Take it back or else prepare to face the consequences of messing with-"

Waving him on as if he were just a measly insignificant fly before true might, the Victorian utterly uninterested in his proposal to quarrel, Emren nodded sympathetically at the girls, "As engaging as that would undoubtedly be, I think that these lovely ladies are first in line to settle a score with our lot. But by all means, if you are so insistent on me annihilating the heir to the name of Sub-Zero, challenge me after they've had their say. I warn you though, your face wiping the floor isn't going to be very pretty."

 _Bitch has me by the nuts, and she fucking knows it!_ Pouting and glad that Techno wasn't there to gloat and spread the news to the others, Zyanyo wasn't going to submit quietly, _On my honor as a Lin Kuei, I'll be damned if I give up!_ "Actually since Sub-Zero is just a codename, there's no guarantee that anyone would be 'next-in-line'. Now if you would have said that I'm my father's heir, you wouldn't have sounded like such a colossal dumb-ass." She wasn't wrong though, as it seemed highly unlikely that Kuai Liang would ever get close enough to anyone to chance procreating again, so there was a lot resting on Zyan's broad shoulders.

 _Just when I thought she couldn't get any scarier_ , Jacqui mused as the most senior amongst them frowned as if she were genuinely hurt. Cassie, on the other hand, was apparently growing ever more fond of the newcomer with each new thing to escape her mouth, _She's super bitchy - me likely_.

* * *

 **A/N** :

Thank you very much! As I told **Celticank** , there is no guarantee of when it'll come at this point, but this I am determined to finish!

Don't worry on that count **KynthiaOlympia** , I think a lot of people will join you on that witch hunt! So long as I can have a torch, I'll join in too! If anyone has earned a vacation, it was Jacqui, the poor thing. So glad that peeps like Emren! It is!

 **Team Pair Guest** , thank you for letting me know that it was you. Yay, so glad that I've built up the excitement of the upcoming chapter(s)!

Well **someone** , I'd say it's more accurate to say that Takeda chose to finally accept Hitomi in the moment, but long-term a decision has yet to be made. It will, that's why I took care to have Cassie be there for her when she finds out. Well, one reason. They'll get what's coming to them, don't worry. They really are a lot alike, aren't they?

Boom, Harry Potter reference! And a modified quote from Kick-Ass 2. Sadly though this is a really short chapter.


End file.
